


Ménage a Star

by snakeknight



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Emotional Eating, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Making Out, Multi, My writing style's a bit wordy, No Sex, Polyamory, Teen Romance, Weight Gain, mild nudity, please bear with me, slightly biased towards Jarco, underage just to be safe, working out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-03-27 21:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 73,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13889568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snakeknight/pseuds/snakeknight
Summary: It seemed like your typical love story: Marco wanted to be with Jackie Lynn Thomas his entire life, but then a certain heart-cheeked princess came along and found herself pining for him. However, Star's feelings soon become a lot more complicated as she gets to know the boy's crush better. A painful choice would have to be made, but what if there was a way that all parties involved could be happy? The answer is a lot simpler than you think.





	1. Bon Bon the Birthday Clown Redux Pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you in advanced for reading my first fanfic on AO3. Anyway, not a lot I have to say about this one. I mainly wrote this story out of frustration with all the love triangle cliches the show has been piling up over the past year and thus I have learned to embrace the three-way. This story is a retelling of the relationship sub-plots from the second half of "SVTFOE"'s second season, beginning with an alternate take on "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown". Enjoy, and please comment. I know it sounds cliche, but nothing helps keep me writing than getting direct feedback on my work.
> 
> Disclaimer: "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" and related characters belong to Daron Nefcy and Disney.
> 
> Warning: This story will feature a polyamorous relationship between underage characters, if this offends you, I apologize.

Chapter 1: Bon Bon the Birthday Clown Redux Pt. 1

It was a typical Wednesday morning in the halls of Echo Creek High School. Students maneuvered the linoleum walkways grouped by cliques to their mandated classes, stopping only for a pit stop at their lockers to acquire study materials or more often to socialize with their peers before the first period bell demanded total silence. Marco Diaz fell somewhere in the latter category as his brown eyes bounced back and forth down the procession of students with a mixture of staunchness and nerves. Moments passed, but the slightly quaking sentinel still had no luck in his search, and a weary voice in the back of his head voiced its concerns, “Come on, class starts in a few minutes. She’s usually here by now.” 

As was the usually the case with the overly cautious young man, his fears were almost immediately rendered moot by a welcome sight in the crowd. A tell-tale streak of aqua green hair amongst a sun-bleached blonde dome emerged from the crowd and immediately caught his eye. The group naturally dispersed and the rest of the form was revealed, a young woman about his own age briskly striding forward, if not slightly hindered by the skateboard she lugged underneath her arm, at a pace that threatened to leave him behind if he did not react soon. Despite his eagerness just moments earlier, the young man found himself at a lack of intelligent thought. “Dude, don’t worry, you can do this.”

This voice came from an external source. Namely, a blonde fourteen-year-old girl perched a few feet behind Marco for this very predicament. “I don’t know, Star. The last two times I tried to tell Jackie how I felt were kind of… unusual. Maybe I should lay off for a few weeks… or months,” the young boy mumbled, the girl looming closer by the minute.

“Oh, no, I am not letting you back out of it this time, Marco Diaz!” Star chirped with a sense of authority, but only meaning to encourage. “You’re going to ask Jackie Lynn Thomas to the dance Friday night, she’s going to say yes and it’s going to be a magical evening for the two of you!”

Marco took a deep breath and upon opening his eyes saw the young woman in question about to overtake him in maybe a moment’s time. Realizing the eleventh hour was at hand, he turned to his best friend and locked eyes with her, “OK, let’s do this. But I want you to stay close behind in case I get off topic, or say something stupid, or feint mid-sentence and hit my head on a locker… again.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I got your seat.” She reassured him with a warm smile, so much so that the little red hearts on her cheeks seemed like overkill.

Confidence renewed, Marco noticed that Jackie had already passed him during his pep talk, but it wasn’t a distance that he couldn’t catch up to easily. After flailing his legs in a quick sprint, the young man found himself at a respectable distance and casually called out, “Hey Jackie, wait up.”

“Oh, hey Marco. What’s up?” the skater girl responded almost instantaneously and met him face-to-face with a quick turn.

Waiting for a response, Jackie brushed a few tresses of hair behind her ear, an innocent enough gesture that was enough to knock Marco off balance. The teen had known her for an overwhelming majority of his young life, pined for her slightly less than that, but had only made progress in actually talking to the girl in the past few weeks; thus the idea of the young woman engaging in conversation with him was a reality that his pubescent brain still had difficulty processing. “I… uh… was,” Marco’s brain struggled to continue the conversation, desperate not to let this opportunity slip away from him, but fearing what would happen if he slipped up. Miraculously, he regained composure, with a little help from a slim elbow clandestinely jabbing him in the back. “I was just wondering if you were doing anything Friday night?”

“Eh, probably just stay home. Mom’s been dropping hints that I need to clean my room, maybe watch a movie after that,” Jackie responded apathetically.

The young boy let out a small laugh, trying to inject some more interest into the conversation, “Yeah, well, a clean room is a happy room.” He immediately regretted the line and vowed to course correct.

“Yeah, well, you know there’s a dance Friday night. That could be pretty fun.” Marco informed her, as though the hallways of the school he spent the last twenty minutes scanning weren’t adorned with an excess of banners and posters advertising the night of merriment.

Jackie’s highlighted irises also noted the gaudily colored papers adorning their surroundings with, to Marco’s dismay, a slight sense of aversion, furrowing her brow before giving a response, “Could be. I’m not exactly a dress and dancing girl.”

Years of karate practice and months of life or death scenarios fighting otherworldly monsters were the only thing that helped Marco maintain his composure, as with that comment, the moment he had spent the better part of two weeks rehearsing for had been rendered moot. He could try to convince Jackie of the merits of a night of drinking room temperature punch and waltzing to Top 40 hits chosen by middle aged faculty members, but his well-documented anxiety gave him a fear of coming off as too desperate to spend time with the girl. An even darker theory, he entertained, was that it wasn’t the prospect of the dance that Jackie had problems with, but that she saw ahead in his plan and this flippant dismissal was her way of declining his invitation as quickly as possible. After all, why else would a boy bring up the subject in the first place? As stated earlier, Marco had just recently made his interest in the girl clear during several recent encounters both mundane and magical, so was the sad fact that she had no interest in him whatsoever?

“Hey, Star!”

Fate smiled upon the young man as the surly, female voice drew Jackie’s attention to something behind him, giving him a respite to regain his composure. He followed her line of sight to find a familiar, but unwanted young woman approaching his best friend who welcomed her with a grand smile. “Janna! So you’ve got everything for the big event?” Star could barely contain her excitement, not even to help Marco with some much needed course correction.

Janna silently removed her backpack from one shoulder and twisted it to face the interdimensional blonde, revealing a book that was definitely not part of curriculum, “Just got this from my contact. This Friday night is going to be one for the ages.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Jackie chimed in.

Eyes half shut, Star gave the skater girl a dismissive gesture, remembering her title as Marco’s wingman. “Oh, nothing. Just a little magic experiment Janna and I had planned this weekend. Nothing really.”

“We’re gonna use dark magic to contact a dead clown.” Janna responded flatly, having no such obligation to her occasional friend.

Jackie merely raised an eyebrow, her curiosity only further piqued. “Really?”

“100 years ago, the mayor of Echo Creek celebrated his birthday by hiring the greatest clown in the country: Bon Bon the Birthday Clown. The party went off without a hitch, until it was time to blow out the candles. Then, disaster struck!” the mischievous girl’s went wide eyed to give her tale the optimal punch. “The great clown Bon Bon suffered horrible burn marks from a freak candle accident. His last words were that 100 years later, he’d come back, just like his candles.”

“Really?” Jackie snarked, but in good cheer. Marco added with a good natured chuckle, hoping she now knew there were worse ways to spend a Friday night. “You guys got room for one more?”

The young man’s laughter veered into sputtering at this new swerve in his plan. Thankfully, Star did her best to cover. “You want to come along?” she asked incredulously

“Well, hey you only live once, right?” Jackie gave an appropriately adventurous smile, before looking over Marco’s way. “I mean unless you wanted to go to the dance. That’s what you were getting at earlier, right?”

Finding himself suddenly back in a conversation he long thought had left him, Marco did his best to recover. “Oh, no, no, no, of course you can come to along to the séance.” He attempted to sound inviting, but his forced smile and continued forced laughter sent another message. “In fact, I… I… was just about to ask if you wanted to come with us, I mean, Star, Janna and me. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any other plans that night, any… formative… youthful milestones.”

“Oh,” Jackie attempted to piece together her manic acquaintance’s invitation, furtive and concerned glances between Star and Janna behind him convincing her that this wasn’t the initial plan. “Well, I guess I’ll just come by your and Star’s place Friday night?”

Marco could barely regain his breath before it was squeezed out of him once again by a milky, thin arm compressing his ribcage with surprising strength. His initial action was to cry for help, but he noted that Jackie had succumbed to a similar fate, and also that the blonde menace had brought their faces a bit too close together for his tastes. “PERFECT!” Star exclaimed, “We’re leaving for the cemetery at 6 o’clock so be there a few minutes before. We are going to have so much fun. TEAM BON BON!”

Star managed to tighten her grip even further with that last exclamation of unity, before letting her two friends loose. Not used to the girl’s impulsive outbursts, Jackie found herself hunched over panting for much needed breath. “Well,” Jackie gasped, noticing Marco was in a similar state and would need time to regroup before class started in a few minutes. “See you then, Marco!”

With that, the girl continued on her way to her locker, Marco seeing her off with a nervous smile to try to salvage the moment. “Star!” Marco exclaimed in the harshest tone he felt comfortable using on the excitable girl once Jackie was out of earshot. “You were supposed to help me ask Jackie to the prom, not invite her to your… clown thing.”

“Hey, don’t look at me!” Star defended herself, completely aware of how much this meant to Marco, but nonetheless not appreciating the young man’s tone. “Janna was the one who brought it up.”

“Yeah, man,” the girl in question brought up with a casual shrug of her shoulders. “I can’t help what I do.”

“Besides, you don’t need some silly old school dance to help you have fun with Jackie. You can have fun with us! We’ll even have a clown!” Star continued to try to view the glass as half full.

Janna also stepped forward to offer some solace, “Yeah, and what place is there that’s more romantic than a graveyard? The silence, the scenery, the overbearing reminder of death to remind you that love is eternal…”

As weak a defense as that was, Marco could only respond by dragging a hand down his face with a sigh, “I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve been planning to ask Jackie out for almost two weeks, and to have it all fall apart like this… I mean I had a schedule and everything!”

The boy reached into his adjacent locker from where he brandished a thickly folded piece of paper which quickly unfurled under its own gravity for both the girls to see. “6:00- Pick-up Jackie; 6:10- Take bus to school; 6:30- Arrive at Dance; 6:35 to 6:50- Small Talk,” Star diligently rattled off the contents of the list, realizing the young man would take more help than she thought.

“8:30- Slow dance; 8:35…” Janna managed to pull her eyes from the faded yellow paper to give Marco an impressed smirk. “Ooh, Diaz you sly dog.”

Janna’s approval notwithstanding, Marco knew these carefully laid plans where wasted and his head drooped low in dejection. Thankfully, Star was the ever-faithful friend and tried to cheer him up, “Marco, this is your problem right here. You think everything needs to line up perfectly!” Star tore the list out of the boy’s now limp hand and pointed to the numerous bullet points and timeframes for emphasis. “Jackie is one of the most chill people in like, forever. If you really do like her so much, try to follow her example and just relax. Gotta let things roll man.”

In a last ditch effort to him up, Star’s mouth spread into a Cheshire grin with that last adage and repeated in a playful, raspy tone, “Roll, man”.

It was a kind gesture he’d appreciate where he in higher spirits. At the moment he could only sigh and leave the two girls to plan out there Friday night as he trudged off to class. “Yeah, just roll…”

 

“Just roll…” Marco muttered to himself as he stood in front of his open closet.

Friday evening had come and his group’s departure for the cemetery was within the hour. Janna and Star were currently assembling some last minute supplies for their, and Marco had opted to take a quick shower, half to avoid the hedonistic girl’s antics and half to make himself presentable for his crush’s arrival at 6 o’clock. He reached into a closet where he kept a fresh, red hoodie, pausing momentarily as his eyes locked on the garment hanging on the far right of the rack: a finely tailored charcoal grey suit he purchased on his own for his would be date with Jackie. “There’s $650 I’m never getting back,” he muttered sardonically.

Marco immediately tried to shut the pessimistic comment out of his brain as he took his change of clothes to the bathroom down the hall. A good deal of the past two days was spent struggling to adapt his plans with Jackie to their new circumstances, but to no avail. He knew that as a member of the lower rung of the Echo Creek High social circle that he should be grateful for any opportunity to spend time with the fairly popular Jackie Lynn Thomas, but he had a hard time picturing any kind of emotional connection being forged as long as a “ghost clown” was involved. Still, he had some hope for the evening, especially in the few times he ran into the girl between classes since Wednesday morning, when she’d shoot him a quick smile and a comment about how she was looking forward to Friday night. The very thought of Jackie smiling at him, no matter how tangentially, would easily brighten Marco’s demeanor, and he thus felt that the best he could do tonight was not drag down the festivities with thoughts of what could have been. 

Refreshed in more ways than one, Marco stepped out of the shower and clad only in a purple tower, made his way to the sink to continue his bathroom ritual: mouthwash to freshen his breath, a quick pass with the dental floss to make sure nothing marred his smile and finally some cologne he plucked from his father’s bathroom when expecting to go to the prom. He initially feared it would be overkill in their new surroundings, but also thought that perceived added effort would work to his advantage. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he thought this night could actually work.

“AHA! Here they are!”

Marco let out a yelp, stumbling backwards and dropping the bottle of cologne as he noticed the two forms kneeling at his feet. “Star! What are you doing here?”

Star looked back from the open cupboard underneath the bathroom sink alongside Janna, a bulging burlap sack sitting between them. “Oh sorry, Marco. Janna and I needed some candles for the ritual tonight, so we thought we’d get some of your mom’s scented candles.”

“And, you couldn’t wait until I was out of the shower?” Marco retorted, leaning forward to stand up, making sure his towel from slipping from under his armpits.

“Nah, we don’t mind.” Janna took a break from stocking up to appreciate the young man in his vulnerable form, leading him to tighten his towel further.

Still not sure how he failed this spot check, the half-naked boy attempted to stammer out a response before being once again cut off. “Marco? Star?” a familiar, relaxed timbre carried from downstairs. “You left the door unlocked.”

“Jackie? Already?” Marco realized that he must have lost track of time ruminating over the coming night. As always, the change in the time table led Marco to leap into action and rush out of the bathroom, leaving his two intruders without a word.

“So… should we tell him?” Star let the question linger.

“Nah, why spoil the fun?” Janna kept up her sly grin.

Marco bounded down the hallways and then the stairway with wide steps to ensure his guest was not left to an empty room for too long. His frantic sprint came to a halt halfway down the ramp and his pulse dropped to a soothing lull when he came across Jackie standing in the entryway of his home, surveying her surroundings for a host. Not aware of Marco’s presence, she removed her helmet and shook her head slightly to bring some life back to her long compressed hair before continuing her search. Jackie was no stranger to the Diaz household, but the idea of the girl of his adolescent dreams being right there was still one that sent a tickle up and down Marco’s back. “Hey, Jackie.”

“Oh, Marco.” Jackie responded with a bit of a jolt, to Marco’s confusion. “Did you need a few minutes?”

“Oh, no of course not, I… I…” the young man wanted to assure her it was not necessary, knowing it was common courtesy never to make a woman wait. However, when he attempted to make a reassuring gesture with both hands, his attention was drawn down to his collarbone, where his fingers were wrapped around a purple bath towel.

“Heh, heh, classic Diaz.” Janna’s self-satisfied chuckle emanated from above.

“Look, we were in the bathroom when you called up. I mean, I was getting out of the shower and they were… no wait I…” Marco attempted to assure her there was a perfectly logical reason for his current attire.

“Dude, it’s fine.” Jackie laughed off the awkward moment with her typical broad smile, rough but inviting, emphasizing the freckles on her sun-kissed cheeks. It was a feature that the young man always admired but was disheartened to be on the receiving end of. “I just don’t think that’s proper séance attire.”

Marco knew it was in jest, but as far as he was concerned he had just stumbled his way of the starting gate. Never one to let himself off easy for a mistake, he trudged back up the stairs to where his fresh change of clothes awaited him, brushing shoulders with Star and Janna as they made their way down.

“Jackie! You made it!” Star pounced from the final step of the staircase to welcome the girl in a friendly embrace.

Jackie was apprehensive when she saw the bubbly princess bounding towards her, her lungs taking a quick breath in anticipation remembering their last encounter. A jolt of adrenaline shot through her frame as she was playfully tackled and she could feel the weight of Star’s chin now resting on her shoulder. Thankfully, though, Star’s grip was much more controlled this time around, leaving her with enough room to move comfortably which she used to drape an arm over her left shoulder in return. Also, being able to breathe much more easily, she took a moment to appreciate the scent of cinnamon wafting from her long blonde hair as she waited for her to break off. “Hey, I said I’d come, right?” she drawled in response, eyes trailing to the more reserved girl behind her. “So I take it you’ve got everything we need.”

“Oh you know it. I got everything you need to violate the natural cycle of life right here.” Janna’s free hand jostled the bottom of the knapsack hanging from her shoulders in time with her gloating.

“Well, I thought I’d bring some stuff of my own. You know, just to pass the time.” Jackie’s sleeker backpack didn’t come near in matching its girth or contents, but she still confidently slid it off her shoulders and presented its contents.

Like an Earthbound child receiving a visit from Santa Claus, Star eagerly retook her position in front of the blonde to revel in her offerings. “Oooh…” she trailed off whimsically at the haphazardly assembled care package of junk food and pulpy reading material. “Cheese crisps, and soft drinks and those weird backwards comic books that Marco hides under his mattress!”

Marco’s head had emerged from his hoodie as he rounded the first landing of the staircase just in time and in earshot to hear his excited co-ed and his pupils dilated appropriately. “Hey, those things are collector’s items! And I don’t need you coming in and smudging them up Ms. Fingerprints!” he called out defensively as he met up with the group.

With no one’s request, Marco kindly shooed Star away to give Jackie some space as she swung the resealed backpack back over her shoulder, hoping that he only imagined that knowing smile. Janna, of all people, helped get things back on track, “This has all been very enlightening, but Bon Bon waits for no one. Let’s get going.”

Janna sauntered out the doorway Jackie didn’t bother to close and a still-wired Star followed suite. “Woo! Bon Bon!” she cheered, arms shooting into the air.

Marco found himself unable to share in the excitement as he and Jackie brought up the rear, the latter taking time to put her helmet back on. His mind racked over what other “enlightening” things Star had to say as he got dressed and how much further in the red he was. He stood silent with the girl he hoped to get to know better that night for a brief summary, eyes darting side to side in hopes of not being any more unnerving. His attention split, Jackie reached behind his head and lifted up the lesser used red hood of his jacket before pulling it forward and grinding it into his scalp. The ensuing jerking motion to his head left him disoriented momentarily, and wondering what provoked the attack. “Hey!” he cried, instantly regretting how pathetic it sounded in his pre-pubescent voice.

“What? You forgot to dry your hair.” Jackie chuckled innocently in her earthy voice, stepping back with a matter of fact shrug to admire her work. “We’re going to spend the night in a cemetery, and I just didn’t want you to catch pneumonia.”

His worst fears alleviated, Marco’s rattled expression faded while his mind assigned some other meaning to the affectionate gesture. Jackie only saw a reinvigorated smile spread on the boy’s mouth which spurred several more small laughs. The boy had been a ball of nerves ever since Wednesday morning, and as long as she knew him in general, and it was nice to see just a sliver of optimism from him for once. “Now come on,” she playful ordered as she scuttled out the front door. “Don’t wanna keep Star and Janna waiting.”

Once past the threshold, Jackie strapped her helmet back on and retrieved the skateboard she had leaned against the stucco of the house. Laying it on the ground, she positioned herself and aimed the nose for the walkway, but paused momentarily to shoot a question to the boy behind her. “You need a ride?” 

“Um, what…” Marco barely managed to sputter out.

Granted Marco had been slowly getting more acquainted with Jackie over the past several weeks and felt he had been growing bolder in doing so, but to have the young woman make such an assertion took him off guard. Obviously, the girl’s mode of transportation was not meant for passengers, meaning if he took up the offer the ride would be an, intimate one to say the least. With Marco’s notorious lack of grace, he’d be dead weight as Jackie guided them to their destination, her hips swaying back and forth to keep up momentum just inches in front of him: a prospect he found both tempting and compromising. “No thanks, I’ll walk.” Marco thought it best to decline, before his mind wandered into dangerous waters.

As usual, Jackie took it in stride before pushing off and rolling along. “Eh, suit yourself. Hey, girls, wait up!”

In a rare act of courtesy, Janna and Star controlled their pace to give their companions for the evening time to catch up, and soon the quartet was on their merry, if not macabre, way. Jackie brought up the rear of the group, one leg robotically dragging across the sidewalk to push her board forward at a slower pace than usual so as to not overtake her guide. Marco hung diligently by her side but remained silent, both from still frayed nerves and admiration of the serene monotony with which the girl propelled herself; her effortless smile stayed focused directly in front of her to scan for any potential obstacles and despite himself, her young suitor could not in turn take his attention off of her. ‘Come on, Diaz. You’ve been waiting for this for weeks. Say something!’

“So, uh… This your first séance?” Marco asked, then immediately wished he didn’t.

“Yeah… You?” Jackie answered, again with no eye contact, though Marco decided not to incriminate himself any further.

Otherwise, it was a fairly uneventful trek to the city’s cemetery, though Star could only manage her excitement by rasping out a chanty of her own design.

_“Bon Bon was a birthday clown,_  
Spreading joy and happiness all around,  
‘Til some bad candles brought him down,  
But tonight he’s coming back to town!  
He’s Bon Bon!”

After three more verses (accompanied by an impromptu beat box breakdown from Jackie) the quartet found themselves at the imposing, wrought iron gates to the city’s final resting place. Janna managed to pick the lock to allow them passage, a skill that surprised no one, and they proceeded. The nature of their surroundings and the dubious legality of their presence gave the walk across the cobblestone and overgrowth laden path way a sense of tension for the other three guests. Eyes surveyed the ornately carved grave markers and gnarled trees flanking their way for anything out of place and ears waited for anything to break the eerie silence. This continued until the thicket surrounding them dissipated into the main courtyard of the cemetery. The ground under their feet gave became more solid, as the earth had yet to be made mined to make more graves and at the far end of the clearing stood a most peculiar statue. Upon the stout base and plaque, the marble effigy tapered into the foot of a garish clown, his other leg up in the air as though captured mid-dance and his mouth eternally rendered in a toothy grin. “Here it is fellas,” Janna proclaimed with her arms skyward. “The final resting spot of Bon Bon the Clown!”

“Hmm, I always wondered why my abuelito was buried next to a giant clown.” Marco pondered as Jackie and Star gazed at the statue with varying degrees of anticipation.

Janna had already began to lay out the materials needed for the ritual that evening, namely the scented candles “borrowed” from Marco’s bathroom, some black spray paint and an ominous looking tome which she currently thumbed through. “Let’s see… necromancy, necromancy…” she muttered to herself while searching for the correct spell, unaware of the blonde girl approaching her from the back.

“Ooh, Janna! You didn’t tell me you had a spell book, too!” Star exclaimed with glee. She would have immediately taken out her own family spell book from her backpack to bond over, but knew that Glossaryck hated being disturbed.

“Just got it for tonight. Figured we’d need something that would be out of the realm of your kind of magic…” Janna added with a dark slant.

Star continued to leer over the girl’s shoulder undeterred, “Ooh, where did you get it? *gasp* Do you know a wizard?”

“Well the guy who sold this to me had one airbrushed on the side of his panel van, so maybe he was.” Janna continued until she jabbed her finger into the current page. “Okay, here it is. Now we’ve got the runes, and the candles, now all we need are the magic mushrooms.”

“Okay, no one told me this was gonna be that kind of séance.” Jackie added flatly, getting a side glance from Marco next to her.

Janna turned to the rest of her party with an uncharacteristically serious grimace. “No, I mean graveyard toadstools. They grow at the base of tombstones and contain necrotic energies that are used to power dark rituals. But sometimes they’re just plain toxic and just touching them lands you in the ER. But, that’s what we have Star for.”

“Wait, me?” Star shot the girl an apprehensive look.

“Well, yeah, it says here that the best way to tell them apart is to have someone who’s magically aligned sense their presence. Seeing as how you’re the resident magic user, you could do it just fine. I mean, you’re good with that, right?” Janna held up the corresponding page of the book to back her up.

Star responded with a smile, thought as Janna noted, it wasn’t her typical bright-as-the-morning-sun, child-like bursts of glee that brought hope to all but the most jaded students of Echo Creek. It seemed as though her cheek muscles weren’t up to the task and could just barely tug the corners of her mouth upward, leaving her usually endearing overbite half-covered as a squeaking laugh barely broke through. “Heh, heh, yeah, sure, that’s me: your magic mushroom catcher thing. Did it all the time back when I was on Mewni.” She tried to give an air of confidence by rolling her eyes back and making a slicing the air with her hand.

Jackie took in the display with a cocked eyebrow and stepped away from Marco, “Think I can come along?”

“Wuh, I mean, uh, why?” Star’s neck snapped towards the young girl, taken aback.

“Well, the more the merrier, right? Plus, I figured I might as well help out.” She stood shoulder to shoulder with the princess, whose posture she noticed was a little less rigid than usual as she put a reassuring arm around her. “We’ll get this knocked out in no time!”

Jackie leaned further into the embrace with a good deal of her weight, forcing Star to shirk even further. It seemed hypocritical given the girl’s track record for respecting personal space, but the princess considered herself something on an expert on the subject of hugging and had a few objections to the skater girl’s technique. To her, a hug was the purest expression of joy and unfiltered happiness and should thus reflect that by surrounding the recipient in an all-encompassing grasp, as the light bruising on Marco’s ribcage could attest. With Jackie, though, all she felt was the somewhat overbearing weight of her body casually leaning on her. The smile was all wrong, too. Again, it may have been the miles of distance between the two girl’s dispositions, but when Star returned eye contact with the girl she did not feel the kind of energy she felt that a smile should carry. Smirk was a more appropriate term; the curl to the young woman’s mouth and devil may care slant to her eyes were less concerned with the outright conveyance of joy and signified something a little less innocent. 

Star had no ill-will towards Jackie, inviting her to get-togethers and her assistance in helping her best friend court her would attest to that and she had a hard time disliking anyone who wasn’t actively trying to kill her, but something about this current moment made her feel… off.

This subtext was lost on Marco, who only saw another opportunity to spend time with Jackie begin to slip away from him and sought to rectify it. “Well, maybe I could come along, too?” He interjected, stepping forth to approach the two.

“Sorry, Diaz.” Janna called out, her tome spread out across her lap. “I need you to help me prepare the ritual.”

She cosigned the young man to his fate by tossing him a can of black spray paint, which he caught with precision, while Jackie and Star marched out to the outskirts of the graveyard on their own quest.

Jackie, for one, bounded over to the protrusions of stone markers with an unusual sense of jubilation, eagerly anticipating what the night had in store for her. For the past several months, Echo Creek High had been abuzz with tales of the magical exploits that seemed to follow their interdimensional exchange student, and considering herself a thrill-seeker who sought a break from the mundane, she jumped at the opportunity to come along tonight specifically for some of that fabled Butterfly magic. Summoning a ghost clown seemed like the ideal first outing with the resident magic girl, so she eagerly awaited her next move, hoping to finish Janna’s fetch mission and get the show on the road. Whetting her excitement even further was the recently unsheathed magic wand she held in her hand, a miniature purple scepter with wings bearing a half a golden star against a crystalline blue setting. A giddy smile came to her as she wondered if perhaps she’d see it in action tonight. She lingered to the girl’s side as they wandered across the field, Star listlessly leaning over every so often to check the backside of a tombstone for their target, then receding with a look of embarrassment when none were found. Jackie followed her example, breaking away to check a series of plots on her own, but had just as much luck. The earthbound girl had little experience with either magic or cultivating, and she did not want to come off as an ungrateful guest, but she felt that a need to speak up. “Should… this be taking this long?” She asked her guest and supposed magical expert.

Star’s horned head perked up at the innocent question. “Oh, uh, yeah… well, you know… magic mushrooms don’t just pop out of the ground…”

Jackie regrouped with the young girl and took in her nervous features. Her eyes purposely avoided her own and she pointed her wand off to the side as she shrugged her gestures flippantly. “Huh,” she began, unconvinced, “Didn’t Janna say that you could sense where these things are? How does that work?”

“Oh, yeah, she did,” Star’s mind raced to find an appropriate response, “Well, yeah, you see my wand will, well, beep whenever we get close to the mushrooms, so we just, heh, follow the wand and we’ll eventually find them.”

The young girl turned away from her friend as quickly as she could and raised her family’s prized heirloom in front of her before marching solemnly towards another gathering of grave markers. “Nope, nothing here,” she warbled, her voice unable to decide on a pitch.

Jackie’s face drooped from its previous inquisitive expression to a more sympathetic one as she beheld the awkward sight. Before her stood not the battle-ready princess from another dimension she would readily forfeit her crown of resident cool girl to, but a girl in the throes of self-doubt trying ineffectually to save face for fear of losing that respect; the posture, the quaking tone of her voice and the awkward, directionless gait all said as much. She had learn to recognize these warning signs from a certain life-time co-ed, though seeing his normally more self-assured friend display them sat poorly with her, though not as much as the needling realization that she may have put on the pressure that led to this breaking point. She walked up to Star as she peered over her wand upon another commemorative plaque, “You’re sure you’ve got this?”

“Yeah, yeah… it just takes a while.” Star attempted to reassure her. “Beep… Beep… Ooh! We might be on to something.

Star turned to Jackie with a forced smile, but was met with a skeptical look, the skater girl looking upon her with arms folded. “You made those noises, yourself.” She pointed out, though not in a scolding tone.

“No I didn’t… beep beep.” Star gritted between her teeth, even holding her wand in front of her mouth in a last ditch effort.  
“Look, Star,” Jackie wanted to know what was bothering the normally peppy young woman, and in doing so may have overreached by placing a calming hand on the girl’s magic wand to lower it down. Star’s reaction definitely implied this, as the feeling of the girl’s hand, calloused with defensive wounds from a lifetime of falls from her skateboard, sent another burst of conflicting feelings up and down her spine. “I know something’s bothering you. Can you just tell me what’s wrong?”

Star paused in her tracks, half from the need to recover from the sensations still disrupting her systems and half to prepare for the embarrassment from her ensuing confession. Ultimately, she remembered she was on Earth, surrounded by girls her own age who weren’t held to nearly as high a standard as her royal upbringing, where she needn’t feel that she was being judged. “Look, I’m not really as good with magic as you might think.” she finally spoke, eyes avoiding contact in a despondent display.

Jackie took this with a doubtful, but encouraging look, “Seriously? Star, I was at Brittney’s birthday party. I’ve seen what you’re capable of doing with that wand. If that’s ‘not good with magic’…”

“That’s the thing,” Star unintentionally shouted, thrashing her arms outwards with the aforementioned tool and forcing Jackie to recoil slightly. “Using the wand is easy! I just call forth the spell and it happens! It’s the more… technical stuff that I have trouble with: stuff like tracking, or sensing magic, things that require more concentration and focus and, well, dipping deep.”

With a new light shined on the subject, Jackie took in the girl’s dilemma and the toll it took on her usually bright demeanor. No longer needing to put on an assuring façade, Star’s heart-stamped cheeks drooped into an exasperated frown and her blue eyes rolled backwards while she continued to ramble. “I mean, I’ve been practicing my magic while I’ve been here on Earth, but nothing really makes sense to me. Glossaryck has been trying to explain it to me, but then he ends up talking about gravy, and meat, and how wands are spoons… Ugh! It’s just so frustrating! I mean, magic is the thing I’m good at! It’s my family’s whole thing! And if I can’t even do basic techniques…”

Star didn’t want to think of this implication and opted to collapse to the ground with a small groan, her elaborate striped socks and sea-foam green dress now flat on the graveyard dirt and her arms hanging limply to the sides. Again, the weight of this development was not lost on the other girl, even though it was far from what she expected to be on the itinerary for that night. She expected to catch up on her favorite manga, watch Janna ham it up as a would be warlock, and get to know a certain brown haired charmer a little better, but with the sad sight in front of her, a bundle of cheer now tied up in self-doubt, she could set aside some time to help her copes. “Star, come on, it’s not that bad. A lot of kids have this kind of trouble,” Jackie cooed, though it did nothing to coax the girl out of her small funk. “Look, I might know something that can help.”

Not expecting to receive anything but sympathy from her friend, Star raised her head to the girl, mouth agape in careful interest. “Really? How could you help me with my magic, no offense.”

Jackie shrugged this charge off as she crossed her own bare legs to position herself next to Star. True, she had no experience with Mewni magic, but coping with learning difficulties was something she felt more able to handle. “It sounds like you just have a hard time focusing and have too much going on in your mind.” She explained calmly.

Star’s face bore just as much confusion as ever, “So, I’m supposed to think less? How’s that supposed to help?”

Jackie continued before Star could get herself overwhelmed again, “Just hear me out. You know that guy from skate camp I talked about at the sleepover? Well, he was big into meditation and he gave me a few lessons.”

“And you think this will help me with magic.” Star asked, a bit of hope returning to her voice.

“Well, it’s more about clearing your mind, which should help out.” Jackie clarified, before her eyes trailed off. “Granted, he also said something about becoming one with the great triangular one, but it could probably help you, too. Now, just close your eyes.”

Star did as she was told. “Now, just breathe.”

“Uh, I’m already breathing.” The princess retorted. “I breathe all the time. I’ll die if I don’t.”

Jackie couldn’t help but chortle, “No, I mean breathe deeply, like as deep as you possibly can before exhaling, and just keep doing that.”

“Oh, gotcha.”

Star immediately adapted, and soon Jackie could hear the gentle rasping of air flowing in and out of her nasal cavities. It formed a lulling rhythm that, if nothing else, put the girl’s instructor into a calmer state of mind as she monitored her pupil. Jackie noted how odd it was to see the hyperactive girl in such a serene state, her face that seemed only capable of extreme emotion sat as inert as the rest of her body, save the young girl’s chest slowly rising the collar of her shirt in time with her breathing. Realizing she was losing track of time, she quickly snapped back to reality and gave Star the next step, “Okay, now just focus on your breathing, don’t let anything else bother you. If any other thought crosses your mind, just forget about it and keep breathing.”

Jackie spoke in an even mellower, softer tone than usual to keep the mood, and the meditating girl welcomed the approach. After processing the girl’s soothing voice, she gladly took the opportunity to sort through the nagging thoughts that had been egging her mind recently and bid them a good riddance. Star Butterfly may have always come off as a carefree spirit to those who knew her casually, and she was, but this disposition made dealing with daily stress even harder for the young woman. Her fourteenth birthday may have bestowed her a wand of unlimited power, but with it came a series of much less pleasant factors that nearly cancelled it out, whether they be the constant threats from enemy forces, her increasingly strained, judgmental relationship with a mother she now barely got to see anymore, or a slew of confusing feelings she has for her new friends on Earth. Being given a pass, no, an order, to abandon all of those aggravations was a welcome relief and with a few more pushes from her lungs, everything felt right within Star’s personal universe for a quick moment. Her previously buzzing mind had gone comfortably lucid and despite her penchant for mania, she welcomed the feeling of absolute quiet the moment provided, aided by the cool night air across her skin and the slight scent of overgrown grass. However, just as she had given herself up to theses subtleties, something shattered her peaceful state of mind in an instant. A hypnotic pulsing emanated from somewhere, both demanding her attention and giving off a warm, inviting feeling, similar to the rush of energy she felt when using her own wand. It was magic. “Jackie! It worked!” Star’s eyes immediately shot open, her exclamation shocking her overseer. “I think I found something.”

Not expecting such results, Jackie could only share in the girl’s infectious smile and go along as she grabbed her wrist and nearly dragged her body along with her, not wanting to lose the figurative scent of the trail. With a giddy smile distorting her face, Star continued her mad dash to a lot at the far end of the cemetery marked by a monolithic, square based tombstone. After turning the corner several yards in advanced to avoid the roadblock, Star finally came to a stop and pointed excitedly with her free hand with a proud proclamation, “Look! I think I see something!”

Trying to regain her bearings after struggling to keep up with the girl, Jackie followed her finger to a feint silhouette almost indistinguishable in the massive shadow of the gravestone, but she could still make out the basic shape of a round spherical cap standing atop a far narrower, cylindrical body. “Nice! Janna could probably conjure up a whole zombie circus with that thing!” she chuckled dryly.

Star once again had the girl beat when it came to enthusiasm and swept Jackie up in yet another bone-crushing hug before her disorientation wore off. “Thank you so much, Jackie! I didn’t think I could do it, but I was so lucky to have you.” The excitable girl screamed in joy.

“Hey, I was glad to help,” Jackie dismissed her gently, lightly pushing her away the minute her grip loosened and the awkward moment ended.

Star of course meant no harm with her rough behavior in the last few hectic moments, but once again sheer exuberance overwhelmed her. It was true that she was a bit behind the learning curve for her age compared to other Mewni princesses, but completing this simple task was a personal victory and she was going to revel in it by first claiming her prize, the initial adrenaline rush still moving her forward in joyful skipping.

Her prize, however, decided to meet her half way.

Star froze dead in her tracks as the graveyard mushroom slowly began to rise from the ground, bright eyes fading into a dumbstruck expression. Drifting lower, she noted that the lot, still partially obscured by the large statue, had only been recently dug out and what she thought to be a mound of dirt was the bloated form of a large arachnid suspended over the six-foot deep hole by its eight spindle like legs shoved into the dirt around the edges, by which it now was pulling itself up. Those legs soon began to lurch forward bringing itself out of the shadow so that Star and Jackie could get a better visual of the mushroom and noticed some new details: it’s cap looked to be more full, adorned with an olive green beak-like appendage with braided fur drooping down the length of its stalk, the stalk itself draped in what appeared to be a bag simply labeled “Crisps”. It also branched off into two additional appendages, one segmenting off still into what appeared to be a morbid mockery of Star’s own wand, a skeletal forearm in place of the staff and half a jade star-shaped jewel embedded in a slab of concrete. In the midst of this pageantry, a majestic eagle let out its battle-cry from above and with a gust of wind settled down on the rear of the spider’s thorax, once again cloaking the mushroom in shadow, save for a pair of blood shot, yellow eyes that peered out vindictively at the young girl. “Hello, Star,” the mushroom squaked.

“Ludo…”


	2. Bon Bon the Birthday Clown Redux Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is. The long-awaited(?) conclusion to my rewrite of Bon Bon the Birthday Clown! As always, leave a comment, please!
> 
> Disclaimer: "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" and any related characters belong to Daron Nefcy and Disney.
> 
> Warning: This story centers around a polyamorous relationship between teenage characters (no explicit sexual content, though). If this offends you in any way, I apologize

Chapter 2: Bon Bon the Birthday Clown Redux Pt. 2 

Star instinctively tightened her grip on her family’s prized wand upon greeting her long-time adversary. Ludo may have lost his army, his title, and most troubling of all his pants, but oddly enough the wily bird had no shortage of dignity during their last encounter just a few weeks ago, where he came as close as ever to besting her in combat. Noting that the fiend normally eager to have a go at her on a near weekly basis had not made so much as a peep since then, Star suspected that he would not have shown his face again unless he had put just as much effort into this assault as well. That theory was strained, though, when Ludo cut to the chase with a blast of emerald energy aimed directly at her. “SUGARCUBE BLOCK WALL!” Star exclaimed, erecting an edifice of granulated sugar right in the middle of the line of attack just to melt away under the heat of the attack. “Jackie! Go get Marco!”

Still taken aback by the change in events, Jackie questioned whether leaving Star alone at this moment was the best course of action, but as a second helping of green magic ate away at the girl’s defenses, she conceded that it was all she could do at the moment. Turning her back, she sprinted back across the graveyard, though her face remained looking back over her shoulder to ensure that Star could handle things on her own.

The Mewni Princess hopped to the side right before barrier collapsed into a pile of white powder and got ready to take aim, “How did you manage to find me here?”

“Well, you know me, I have my networks of information to keep tabs on you… I can follow you without you even having to leave Mewni.” Ludo gave a self-satisfied response as his mount scuttled into position.

“Networks… follow…” Star wracked her mind to unwrap Ludo’s vague gloating before coming to a dubious conclusion. “Wait, you follow me online?”

Star instantly regretted that status update upon seeing Ludo give an innocent shrug, “Don’t blame me, when you post it online, it’s no longer private!”

 

Marco slowly rose from his quavering knees to take in his handiwork. Before him, forming a ring around Bon Bon’s commemorative plaque, sat a pair of concentric chalk circles drawn with a radius of 14 and 24 inches. A more disparaging eye would note that underneath both rings lay a faint white smudge from the boy’s first three attempts which Janna deemed as not worthy of any dark lord and needed to be redone until they were perfectly uniform all around. The young woman currently sat in a folding chair set up next to the towering clown statue where she could properly supervise Marco’s work, as well as inspect Jackie’s reading material and snacks to see if they were acceptable for the night’s activities. She briefly looked up from the book in question when she heard a small grunt from the young man and looked upon the circle with lips pursed in deep though, “It’s… acceptable.” She ultimately gave her judgment, before leaning over to retrieve a series of stencils from her bag. “Now, we need you to space these ancient protection runes evenly within the two circles. Do you still have the spray paint?”

Marco waited a brief moment before realizing that by “we”, Janna once again meant him with herself in a managerial role and then approached the woman with a beleaguered sigh. “Now, Marco, don’t be pouty. You know that Bon Bon doesn’t like unhappy children.” Janna attempted to quell the young man in a sing-song voice as he retrieved his materials.

Marco returned to the would-be ritual site with the stencils in hand and began laying them out. As much as he did not appreciate being used as a lackey by the enigmatic girl, appreciating how much she seemed to enjoy watching him work even less, his tendency for perfection still got the better of him as he positioned the symbols to be level with the text on Bon Bon’s plaque. At one point, he even lamented not bringing his own back pack where his protractor resided to ensure that the ten symbols were laid out perfectly. Still, this level of attention to detail ultimately waned as he came to his senses and he vented, “Oh, please, I don’t care about Bon Bon. I only came here to spend time with Jackie, and now I’m desecrating the grave of a beloved children’s entertainer while she’s out having the time of her life with my best friend and your unironically enjoying serialized fiction by a creator whose been phoning it in for years!”

The girl kept her calm in the face of Marco’s outburst, not even lifting an eye from the current harrowing chapter of “Blorch” she was reading. “Hey, I don’t see why this is such a bad thing. If you went to the dance, you’d have to worry about embarrassing Jackie in front of the entire student body. Here, you only have to worry about me and…”

Janna’s face froze with an epiphany before the absent girl’s name could roll off her tongue. Gears in her mind slowly turning, her face slowly shifted to a predatory grin aimed directly at Marco, “Oh…”

“‘Oh’ what?” Marco quickly countered, fearing whatever idea wriggled into the devious girl’s mind.

“That’s what this is all about… Star.” Janna’s theory was only proven correct when her piercing delivery caused Marco to visibly recoil. “You wanted to spend time with the girl of your dreams, but you didn’t want the girl of your reality playing third wheel!”

“Star isn’t…” Marco immediately stopped himself, knowing it was not the time or place to get into that old debate. He hated to admit to it, but the young woman had managed to get close to the heart of the matter, and now he felt the best thing he could do was vent to her while she was being unusually empathetic. “Look, your right. The reason asking Jackie to the dance was so important to me is because I knew you and Star would be… doing whatever we’re doing here… so I figured for once I’d have some time alone with her and not be, you know, overshadowed.”

Janna leaned forward in her seat slightly, her steady supply of crisps brought to a halt and her manga unceremoniously flopped onto her lap. Marco had always been the emotionally vulnerable type, it was what made him a common target of her larcenous past times, but this confession hadn’t gone quite the way she expected and she was quite intent on hearing how it would play out. In an instant, Marco’s rigid, frustrated stature had loosened significantly, fingers crammed sloppily into his jean pockets as his body swayed side to side listlessly with self-doubt. “I mean, you know Star. She’s this happy boundless ball of energy that everyone loves to be around, who always knows what to say, and how to get on people’s good side. She can light up a room just by being there, and you know when she’s there. Basically, she’s everything I’m not. So whenever we go to school or someplace public, it’s Miss Fun-Time and Rainbows, and the dull, stick-in-the-mud worrywart who tags along for the ride. Honestly, I’m afraid that if I spend too much time around her with Jackie, she’s going to start seeing that, and think that I’m just some pathetic loser.”

The longer Marco’s piteous rant went on, the further lower his line of sight drifted until his eyes peered down on the chalk outlines before him, where his feet now teetered back and forth aimlessly. He closed with a dejected sigh, mind racing with negative thoughts of how the night was affecting Jackie’s perception of him, until a dismissive sputtering of lips brought him harshly back to reality. “Yeah, sure that’s all Star’s fault.”

Marco quickly re-established eye contact with Janna to find the girl he just poured his heart out to reclining back in her seat with an unsympathetic glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Marco retorted in what he hoped wasn’t a whine.

With a controlled brow, Janna flatly laid out her answer. “Come on, dude. You’ve known Jackie for how long, since, like preschool? And you’ve been going to the same school since then. In any of that time, have you ever given her a reason to actually pay attention to you, or think of you as something more than some creeper with a crush?”

Marco wished he could have shut down the harsh accusation, but a recent trip to the Time Dimension would attest that, no, in all the time he silently pined for Jackie Lynn Thomas, all the time he fantasized about winning her hand and earning her affections, he had done nothing to make it a reality. No complements on days he felt her hair or eyes shimmered particularly brighter than normal, no offers to sit next to her during lunch or join her for skating after classes, and certainly no attempts to emulate the action heroes he idolized who managed to make winning the heart of a leading lady seem so simple. All part of his logic that if he came off to strong, the girl would be turned off or he’d make a fool of himself, and that he was better off just playing it safe, day after day, then months, then years. “Heck, from what I’ve seen, it wasn’t ‘til Star showed up that you actually made an effort to talk to her.” Janna stated further.

Again, mountains of evidence backed up this claim. In the months since Marco had befriended Star, the young man had encountered all manner of life and death situations but nonetheless survived, and thus the matter of talking to his long time crush or sitting next to her on a long bus trip seemed trivial in comparison. “Trust me, Diaz. Star has only made you look better, and you have no one to blame but yourself for not taking advantage of it.” The dark haired girl eased back into her snarky, leaning back into her seat and picking up where she left off in her book. “With all the stuff you’ve gone through, I don’t think you can get away with playing ‘shy nice guy’ much longer, so if you want Jackie as badly as you claim, just get your act together and do it.”

Marco recoiled slightly from the hard critique, but only because Janna had successfully shattered the veneer of self-pity that so easily concealed his personal failings. Perhaps part of him always wanted to be more direct with his feelings with Jackie, a part that was brought out by the adventurous but naïve Star, and now that he had a push from the apathetic Janna, he could finally convince himself that now was the time to take action. “Janna, I never thought I’d be saying this of my own free will, but you’re right.” Marco stood fully erect, and for added effect raised a fist in triumph. “The next time I see Jackie Lynn Thomas, I’m going to tell her how I feel.”

“Funny you say that, dude, ‘cause she’s coming right now.”

Marco quickly turned and, sure enough, he spotted Jackie sprinting down the courtyard of the cemetery back to the site of the ritual. After taking a deep breath, he planned to live up to his bold promise and prepared himself for his confession, thus he didn’t register that Star was conspicuously absent from her side, or the look of terror that left the young woman wide-eyed. “Jackie, I…” Marco began as the girl came to a stop in front of him, his controlled pace contrasting with her panting breaths.

“Marco! Star’s in trouble!” Jackie gasped, staring Marco directly in the eyes.

“Wait, what? Star?” Marco babbled in response, caught off guard to say the least.

“Yeah, some… weird chicken guy, riding a giant spider and eagle burst out of ground and started attacking.” Jackie spat out with a confused look as she failed to understand the words coming out of her mouth. “She told me to get you.”

“Ludo’s here?” Marco screamed, if nothing else giving the moment some clarity.

“STRAWBERRY SORBET STORM!”

A faint pink glow drew the three teens’ attention just over the hill where a volley of oversized strawberries rained down at a steep angle, soon returned by a sickly wave of lime green fire. Immediately after, Star hopped into few over the horizon line followed by Ludo’s fearsome ride as the two continued to exchange magical blows, caught in a stalemate of bright pastel colored constructs and fury made tangible. Instincts kicked in and his teen romance drama suddenly became the furthest thing from Marco’s mind as he turned to his long-time crush with a curt look he normally wouldn’t dare give her, “Stay here with Janna, I’ll go help her.”

Several meters away, Ludo continued to engage his self-appointed adversary. Senses heightened in the heat of combat, he managed to catch a glimpse of an all-too familiar red and black figure out of the corner of his eye as his mount pivoted to keep Star in sight. As much as he hated to admit it, the human boy somehow managed to be a thorn in his side despite not having any magic abilities outside of his “karate”, and his aide was often the deciding factor in several of his previous skirmishes with Butterfly. Of course, with his recent change in approach, he made sure to accommodate the young boy while preparing for his night’s plan; if the children thought they could take him on two on one, they were in for a rude surprise. With a quick backhanded thump, Ludo’s eagle spread its wings with a harsh caw and brought its two associates airborne. Star responded with a few concentrated blasts of narwhals and the like, but with an extra dimension to work with, the avian combo managed to avoid any attacks while Ludo rummaged through the front of his attire. “Oh, come on, don’t tell me I left it at home… Aha!”  
The diminutive creature triumphantly brandished a sizable handful of the mushrooms that had eluded Star and Jackie for a good deal of the night. Granted, when one had a spectral voice in the back of your head giving you added magical insight and an army of smarter-than-average rodents to do the leg work, Ludo was much better prepared for conducting this sort of spell than a group of high school occult enthusiasts. Any sight of the micro-managing, neurotic, self-proclaimed king dissipated as he began reciting the passage just as his unseen advisor instructed him to, his voice dropping to an octave more suiting for a demon from the underworld, stoking a stream of wispy black smoke from the toadstools in his hand that wafted to the ground below. Star could barely make it out against the night sky, and it was ultimately Janna who saw it seeping into the hallowed Earth while Marco readied himself for battle. “Uh, guys,” she quietly called out to Jackie and Marco, who had never heard her so concerned in their life.

The warning, though, was soon drowned out by a clamor of scratching and rustling from deep below the Earth that only continued to amplify and rock the soft ground around them. The three teens surveyed the area frantically for the aftereffects of Ludo’s incantation, and Jackie was the first to call attention to a charred grey, mangled hand rising from the ground with a shrill yelp. It quickly snapped forward, digging its gnarled fingers into the tilled soil before pulling down and ejecting a decayed skull whose eyes gazed out to the terrified teens with nothing but a jade green glow. Several other cadavers followed suit, pulling their ragged skeletons out from the soil and once their calcified feet touched the surface again, they slowly began to converge towards a certain young man in a red hoodie. Marco recognized their trajectory, but before he could formulate an escape plan for his two friends, the oncoming hoard had formed an impenetrable circle of shambling, undead forms that was slowly shrinking around them. “Marco!” screamed Star when she saw Ludo’s plan in motion.

Unfortunately, before Star could announce one of the numerous wide range spells that could have easily eradicated the swarm, an updraft of wind brought her attention to her flank, where spider caught in the talons of a mighty eagle was on a collision course with her. She managed to sidestep before the moment of impact, but Ludo didn’t seem to be too disappointed, only given a slight smirk. “Well, it looks like your little friend has company. No matter, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

Star gritted her teeth at the situation she found herself in. She wanted to help save her friends more than anything at that moment and Ludo knew that, and the moment she’d try turn her back to do so, he was ready to serve up a blast of his corrupted magic. She could only take solace in the knowledge that Marco had managed to finagle his way out of worse scenarios and her undying confidence that he would do the same now. He and Jackie quickly swiveled their heads back and forth looking for a break in their ranks, but found nothing, save for the sight of Janna down on her knees with a can of black spray paint currently obscuring one of the stencils she laid out for Marco earlier. “Don’t tell me your still concerned with the ritual!” Marco shouted, letting the heat of the moment get to him.

Janna, in a moment that rivaled Jackie for most chill teen in Echo Creek, looked up at the boy with a confident smile, “This isn’t for the ritual. This rune is for a protection spell that was meant to protect us from Bon Bon’s possible evil clown magic.”

The zombies were a mere couple meters away at this point, forcing Marco and Jackie into the inner circle of the ritual site where Janna hurriedly clawed at the top right corner of the paper overlay, the stench of death lingering in more ways than one. “Let’s hope this works!”

Janna ripped away the stencil in a grand sweep, the other two teens lurching forward as the last of their breathing room was consumed. The situation seemed dire, until Jackie noticed a calming, pale blue light washing over the increasingly crowded gravesite. Upon reaching the edge of the outer circle Marco painstakingly spent the last hour drawing out, it turned upward for several feet in the air, ending in an oscillating wall of light, adorned with the occasional sparkle. The first zombie to reach the circle found its already time ravaged face flattened as it seemingly walked into a solid wall, much to the relief of those lucky enough to be outside. His brothers in arms, focused only on their fleshy targets, made the same mistake and found themselves flat against barrier of light, but in their single mindedness they stubbornly continued to press against the wall as though their combined weight would eventually bring it crumbling down. “Heh, just like the guy said,” Janna chuckled. “It’s guaranteed to keep out any evil magic, or those animated by it.”

As safe as they were, the increasing number of zombie countenances peering out at the through the translucent wall did not sit well with Marco. True, he and his two friends were safe for the moment, but over the helpless crowd of failed zombie assailants, he could still see a faint, blonde-haired girl bobbing, weaving, and occasionally firing out a unicorn as a hodgepodge predator matched her every move. Marco knew Star was unmatched on the battlefield, but at the same time something wouldn’t let him simply sit still while she fought an unusually heated match, whether it was his warrior’s spirit, his friendship with the girl or the message Jackie brought him just a few moments ago that she needed him. This was apparent from the determined scowl across his face that Jackie noticed didn’t go away when Janna’s barrier promised them a safe haven. More concerning was Marco pushing his arms through the baby blue wall of energy, his mortal coil leaving ripples in its surface but otherwise not impeding him, and placing them on the shoulders of a particularly short zombie helplessly clawing at the surface. In a fluid motion, he pushed the figure down and vaulted himself over four-zombie thick barricade, much to Jackie’s confusion, “Marco, what are you doing?”

The young man landed on both feet and a palm, knees pointed out to the side and his other arm extended to the right in a flourish, before turning back to his crush with a determined, but reassuring, smile, “Like you said, Star needed my help!”

Jackie’s mind had no shortage of reasons why this was a foolish decision, but she had a fearful feeling that Marco would soon realize that himself. It had finally dawned on the collective conscience of the undead army that attempting to breach the barrier was futile, so they now turned their efforts to the one fleshy target that had entered their domain. Thus, the shambling bodies gathered around the ritual site formed two orderly lines around its circumference converging at the point of Marco’s exit and funneled towards the unarmed fourteen-year-old, whose wide-eyes suggested that he now saw the error of his camaraderie. Still, as it had in numerous other fights the boy had been in, a surge of adrenaline kicked in and sent his fist colliding with the skull of one skeleton, instantly fragmenting it and leaving the rest of the body limp on the ground. 

Jackie and Janna at the same time took a sigh of relief and found themselves breathless. They knew that Marco’s position as Star’s best Earth friend and enthusiasm for karate met that the young man had a good deal of combat experience, but neither had ever seen him in a proper fight against these sorts of odds. In fact, both girls, with no ill will to the boy, were more familiar with his reputation as something of a pushover, for lack of better words, so it was more than a relief to see the boy effortlessly fend off several more undead soldiers with similar ease. “Whoa, go Marco!” Jackie laughed softly in disbelief.

While not taking away from the boy’s fighting prowess, this fight was even more straightforward than his usual fare against Ludo’s armies of varied henchman. A near century of decay did no favors for the constitution of his enemies, their skulls or ribcages crumbling to pieces with a single blow, and after a while the oncoming hoard seemed more like an assembly line of targets for Marco to take out with a quick jab or a follow-up step kick as they listlessly marched forward with their stereotypical zombie gait. If either of the two girls had a better look of Marco’s face, they would have noticed his expression carried more frustration than fear of defeat as he timed his punches in rhythm with the procession of zombies. To a degree, his reputation as a weakling was accurate, as Jeremy would be more than happy to explain, but when push came to shove he always managed to find a secret well of strength that could push him beyond what one would expect from the unassuming teen and most of those pushes were almost always against his best friend Star. Every minute he squandered against Ludo’s diversion was a moment in which he could seize victory against the girl, hence the young red belt had no difficulty dispatching enemies, dealing blows left and right with a “kiyah” or “hiyah” until only one remained. As any avid fan of martial arts films would expect, this final enemy stood out from the rest of the pack as he merrily bounced from foot to foot towards the young challenger, dressed in the long-faded remains of what could still be identified as a yellow jumpsuit and with traces of white grease paint caked on his decayed face framed by remnants of frizzy orange hair, “Hey kids! It’s me, Bon Bon! I came back just like my…”

Blinded by his frenzied state of zombie-busting zen, Marco released one final lunging punch towards his opponent with a mighty cry that expelled all the air from his lungs, which upon impact with the jolly walker’s belly sent waves through his form. The zombie clowns already garish face took on an even more nightmarish expression of pain as the remains of his mortal coil began to dissolve from the point of impact; the hole in his stomach left from the boys fist spread rapidly before the wave of disintegration accelerated down his limbs and his beady eye sockets grew even wider as his skull faded away into the night air. “Well that was… something.” Jackie narrated, taken slightly aback.

“And… upload!” said the more enthusiastic Janna upon clicking the screen of her smart phone, camera aimed at the young man, earning a side eye from the other girl.

Though the zombies had little going for them other than numbers, dispatching the scores of foot soldiers was still an endurance test for Marco, and he couldn’t help but take a moment to catch his breath now that he had the opportunity. Knees bent and head keeled over as he breathed heavily, the boy turned behind him to check on Star’s battle against Ludo, and neither to his dismay or relief the two foes were still locked in a standstill with no side seeming to gain the upper hand anytime soon. A second wind blew away any sense of exhaustion once Marco realized that his mere assistance would instantly tip the scales in Star’s favor, just as it foiled the plans of her diminutive enemy numerous times in the past and broke into a mad dash. Admittedly, that deeply held desire to help his close friend may have clouded the usually sharp boy’s love of planning, and thus his on the fly strategy consisted of literally jumping into the fray and deliver a flying kick to Ludo’s left side while he was distracted with Star, hopefully dismounting him. Similar tactics had worked in the past when the duo dealt with Ludo’s minions, but Marco’s presence in the air did not go unnoticed by a certain bird of prey on the smaller avian’s 6 o’clock whose neck just happened to twitch in his direction moments before impact. Marco mimicked a deer in the head lights when he saw the creature’s majestic wingspan soar straight for him with an intimidating screech. Several times larger than the birds of Earth, the collision hooked the boy on the predator’s wing for several feet before sliding off when the creature started into a u-turn to return to his master. Marco’s back was crudely re-introduced to the Earth and the follow-up impact of the back of his head left him disoriented for a moment before he could crane his neck back up. For once, Ludo seemed almost satisfied with his brow-beaten pet’s performance, even using his free hand to stroke the plumage of its breast when it perched behind him with an affectionate grin. “Marco!” Star screamed, her concentration on her fight broken by the failed sneak attack.

“Marco!” A similar cry came from within the magical barrier on the other side of the battlefield, as Jackie’s sharp eyes flared open in shock. Just as Marco’s impressive display earlier that night reminded her she was in the presence of a hero who had faced certain death but always managed to get out just fine, seeing the same young man knocked out of the sky so easily, reminded her that he was still merely a fourteen-year-old boy with all the fragility that entailed.

The pink glow of a partially charged Warnicorn Stampede fizzled away as Star relaxed her grip on the wand and turned her attention to the prone boy. Alleviating her concerns slightly, the young man slowly began to lean forward in spite of the feeling of several small daggers seemingly jabbing into his spine. “Star, I’m fine…” Marco groaned, trying to reassure his friend.

Still, the sight of her close ally in pain was enough to make the princess forget her current conflict for a moment and she began to make her way towards the young man. However, Ludo, never one to take being ignored well, instantly snapped his wand in the young man’s direction, “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, BUTTERFLY!” 

Ludo needn’t say another word. Fear immediately brought Star to a standstill and when Marco got his shoulders off the ground, the first thing he saw was the ethereal green glow of the sinister wand, primed and ready to fire, almost hypnotizing him into compliance. “If either of you two so much as move a muscle, the boy gets it. Understand?” Ludo barked out, taking a moment to relish in the rare opportunity that he held the upper hand. “Now, hand over the book first! Then, the wand!”

Star’s slack-jawed silence was the only confirmation Ludo needed, though she refused to give a conscience one. She kept a close eye on Marco hoping that his pride would lead him to attempt to roll out of Ludo’s line of sight, but he sadly did not seem up to it. The brave face he had put on a few minutes ago faltered into a grimace of pain as his head slumped back to the ground, the impact of the fall taking a toll on his quick reflexes. This left Star fearing the worst; she had noticed a definite change in the demeanor of her close nemesis of their last couple encounters and whether it was frustration, desperation or something else, there was an air of darkness emanating from the once affable Ludo that led her to believe that he would deliver on his promise. As much as it pained her to admit it, she had few other options than to comply. None of the techniques in her repertoire had the finesse to either free Marco or disarm Ludo without giving him the opportunity to fire back in retaliation first. The brief feeling of accomplishment she had with Jackie just moments earlier felt otherworldly as she now couldn’t forgive herself for never making the time or effort to learn other tactics that could have pulled Marco to safety or shield him in a veil of magic. Suddenly remembering she and Marco weren’t alone that night, she turned her attention to the site of what was supposed to be a light-hearted gathering of friends to find Janna and Jackie gazing out to their fallen friend, hoping that against all odds that she could find a way to save him and put a stop to the dastardly villain, and sadly she was bound to disappoint them. Star felt that she was at her lowest moment in more ways than one as she set her wand to the side to pull her backpack to her front and retrieve the oversized spellbook, “I’m sorry, Marco, Mom, Glossaryck…” 

Ludo could barely contain his glee at this sight, beginning to quiver and hop in place with child-like amusement but keeping a rigid arm extended towards Marco, “Oohoohoo, I can’t believe it! It’s actually happening!”

Jackie shared the same sentiment as she gazed onto young man barely able to squirm out of harm’s way, and the sad sight was nearly enough to send her barging out the side of the blue barrier. The only thing stopping her was a tight grasp on her wrist. “Are you nuts? You can’t just barge in there!” Janna snapped at the girl.

Jackie could only grit her teeth in response, “What? I’m supposed to just sit back and do nothing?”

“Look, you heard the guy. If we try to get in close, Marco eats it.” Janna continued in a calm, rational tone unbecoming of her. “Heck, he’ll probably fry you too just for the thrill of it.”

Once again, the morbid girl played the voice of reason, but it did little to calm Jackie. While she was merely a guest tonight, the ongoing escalation of events left her increasingly frustrated that she had no way to contribute as her friends stood up to the plate: Star sending her away to get help as she stared down her old nemesis, Marco playing the dashing hero in fending off the horde, and even Janna managed to provide a barrier to keep her safe from the havoc of it all. It all came to a head at this very moment, with Star ready to surrender and her friend lying helpless on the ground as a reward for coming to her aid. The princess slowly unzipped the satchel slowly, as though to delay the inevitable, separating the zipper tooth by tooth to unveil the treasure within, much to the delight of Ludo, whose smile gradually grew bigger and actually seemed to enjoy the ruse, all while she was confined to a dusty slab of stone with a hastily spray painted magic rune providing her safety. For Jackie, though, the anxiety of being an onlooker safely tucked away while her friends suffered forced her to turn away in a huff and turn her attention to anything else. Namely, her attention turned to the pile of supplies her friend had brought to the séance: chips, a few cans of spray paint, the partially used stencil that created their magic barrier, and, to the athletic girl’s annoyance, her skateboard, which Janna had used as a dolly for her bag of supplies so she could merely roll supplies to Marco as he needed them without her needing to move from her seat. While she only sought a break from the bleak display, what she got was an idea. Locking eyes with Janna, she asked “Do you have any more spray paint?”

Star’s eyes hung down despondently at the offering in her hands. Hundreds of spells, generations of Mewni’s past queens, and the secrets of the most powerful magic in multiple dimensions rested in her hands, and it was all hers to lose. Making her slow procession to Ludo’s feet, she tried to console herself that she was doing this to save the life of a friend, but somehow she was unsure that her parents would understand. She was sent to Earth to get her magic under control, but in her time there she only proved just how unworthy she was, a thought that nearly brought tears of self-pity to her eyes. Not helping her eyes in the slightest was the ever-nearing sight of Ludo upon his hodgepodge mount as she deliberately made her way closer. Both parties remained silent in the moments leading up to the exchange, and the night was completely silent save for the rattling of loose gravel that soon took Ludo’s attention.

Ludo’s attention was monopolized by both Star and Marco, making sure didn’t attempt any sudden movements, thus it was likely he wasn’t even aware of the existence of their two acquaintances that night taking shelter under the statue of Bon Bon. It could then be understandable that, with victory so close at hand, he couldn’t have been bothered by a detail as small as one of those girls furtively sneaking out of the faint blue portal and circle around to his rear, behind the cover of multiple tombstones, where she would have a quick beeline to the grounded Marco. Just as she had planned, it only took a few pushes on her skateboard to close the gap between her and the young man before anyone noticed her casually roll into Ludo’s line of sight. “Dude, hop on!” she ordered under her breath, squatting on her board to extend a helping hand. 

Marco greeted her with mortified look caught between condemning her recklessness and fear for her safety, a look that Star matched several feet away as she let the oversized book in her hand sag just a bit lower. Gazing at the girl’s smile, one that seemed to imply everything would be fine, he thought Ludo had done the deed, and the powers above had sent down an angel in a form he’d gladly accept as an escort. “J-Jackie… what are you doing?” he blathered to his crush, fear quickly settling in for what would happen to her and how he’d be responsible for it.

Ludo seemed more amused by the development than anything. “Hmm, how noble.” He began, maintaining his air of smug, untouchable confidence. “But also… REALLY DUMB!”

Living up to his word, he tensed his arm and released another blast of emerald fire in Marco’s direction. Marco’s pin needle sized pupils contracted even further at the sight of the roaring flame ready consume his guardian’s body, Star saying exactly what was on his mind in a guttural cry, “JACKIE!”

Despite the magic’s brilliant light, Marco’s brain refused to let him shut his eyes or take any precaution to shield himself from the oncoming blast, not wishing to miss her last moments no matter how grizzly they would be. The poet inside him hoped the image of her kind eyes and oddly confident smile would forever be burned into his memories should he survive, gallows puns be damned. Ideally, he would have given up his feeble body to ensure she could walk out of her alive, not wanting the girl he loved for so long to die because of his failure. After the longest seconds of his life, the blast of fire came to claim Jackie, its harsh light casting her features in shadow before letting out a thunderous clash. 

And the fates smiled on the two.

The young woman winced at the impact as the various shades of jade behind her gave way to a filter of light blue materializing behind her, providing an ethereal backdrop to Jackie’s form for a spilt second as the raging fire slowly dissipated into the night sky. Noting the sudden lack of color, the teen girl looked over her shoulder at the last, fading shimmer of blue and sighed in relief, “Huh, it actually worked.”

Marco’s abject terror was repurposed into one of bafflement, but that countenance paled in comparison to Ludo. The would-be sorcerer hoped to assert his dominance with a display of undue brutality, just to see his prized dark magic fail to incinerate a single, measly human, the fire just giving out before even making impact. No amount of gnashing teeth or twitching eye lids could help him comprehend how he could have failed. “WHAT?!” He let out in a petulant shriek that reminded a now relieved Star of the Ludo of old.

Jackie made good use of the state of confusion to carefully lace an arm underneath Marco’s armpits and raised him to a leaning position against her back. Given the boy’s injury, she needed to take care and it was a much more cumbersome maneuver than it needed to be, compounded by Marco’s seemingly catatonic state, eyes glazed over as he tried to understand how his crush managed to cheat death. “Wha…Wha…How did we survive that?” Marco questioned as his body flopped ragdoll-like in Jackie’s hands while she set him in a standing position riding behind her on her skateboard.

“Check out the new decal!” Jackie jovially directed the boy’s attention downward and shifted her heels to the edge of the board.

Underneath their feet, Marco spotted a hazy, jet black glyph on the deck top of Jackie’s skateboard. The stark color and hazy effect clashed heavily with the soft, aqua blue color scheme and plasticine texture of the board, but then his short term memory recalled that a similar symbol provided Jackie and Janna a safe haven from the zombie hoards just moments ago. He figured that the girl had the idea that if he couldn’t get himself to safety, she would simply bring the protective ward to him. While Marco had nothing but respect for Jackie’s ingenuity, Ludo steamed away as the two children began to casually roll away. “GET THEM!” He growled to his pet eagle, pointing with his free hand.

With a caw of confirmation, the predator soared of in the designated direction, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Marco. “Uh, Jackie…” Marco began weakly. “We’ve got company!”

Jackie looked over her shoulder and her eyes shot open at the massive eagle getting ready to overtake them. She had no reason to fear Ludo’s energy blasts, as recently demonstrated, but the razor sharp talons provided by Mother Nature would easily make mincemeat of her and her friend. The young girl wasn’t used to giving rides to passengers, but she felt that she could still attain the speed and maneuverability needed with a few extra kicks from her foot. More important to her was the well-being of Marco, who she could tell was struggling just to stand up given the condition his back was in but couldn’t admit thanks to machismo. Looking him in the brave face he put on, Jackie smirked, “Hold on tight!”

Marco knew this was far from the appropriate time, but as Jackie zoomed forward and inertia set in, he did as he was told and laid his forearms along the lengths of Jackie’s calves as his upper body leaned against her shoulder. Head propped up, he got a view of a clocker tower in the distance. ‘Just a little after 7,’ he thought to himself, ‘Huh, I’m actually ahead of schedule.

Ludo kept track of their movement across the perimeter of the courtyard with a vindictive grin. With a desire to make-up for this humiliation, he forgot where he was at the moment, and more importantly that he had just lost the leverage that rendered his opponent powerless against him. “EXTENDABLE RAINBOW FIST!”

A full spectrum punch sent Ludo flying backwards, but not too much as his fall was cushioned by the bloated thorax of his spider mount. Shaking off the blow to the head, Ludo refocused his vision in front of him and noticed his long-time opponent had re-entered the fray. Gone was the broken, defeated young girl begging for her friend’s well-being. What slowly approached him with head held high, shoulders broad and arms and legs swinging like clockwork bore little semblance to the gleefully battle born child who was so often a thorn in his side either. Nevertheless, this young woman with icy cold blue eyes continued her march towards him with an indignant scowl. Around her form, Ludo swore he saw a fuzzy, light blue glow begin to outline her form growing thicker by the instant, which occasionally crackled and sent a wave over her entire form on each odd step she took towards him. He initially assumed it was just the moonlight night illuminating her, and likewise, the locks of corn gold hair slowly standing up on their own and trailing behind her head like an elegant veil was a gentle evening breeze, but this was wishful thinking. “You know, Ludo.” This new Star began, using a voice similar to one you would use to scold a friend who had recent needled their way under your skin rather than a mortal enemy. “I can accept you trying to steal my family’s wand, or showing up to kill me whenever, or even trying to usurp my birthright given what happened between Mewmans and Monsters back in the day…”

Ludo noted the young girl trailing off once again and hoped to take advantage of the easily distracted girl, clutching his wand for another attack. However, before he could prepare an attack, Star mechanically rose her wand with a motion that broke the air, “BUT TRYING TO KILL MY FRIENDS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE! WARNICORN STAMPEDE!”

The feint light Ludo noticed earlier intensified to a blinding degree the moment Star chose her spell. The fallen king was quite familiar with the young girl’s arsenal of ridiculous spells from their numerous encounters, but this time it was different. The sheer output of energy resulted in a small whirlwind centered around the girl that whipped every loose garment and hair on her body into a frenzy as the white-knuckle gripped wand summoned a small army of battle-ready equine until they obscured her form completely. It was so magnificent that Ludo only had a brief moment to react to the dozens of warnicorns rushing at him and, knowing his own magic was outclassed, could only jam a fist into the bloated thorax of his spider. This caused his mount to eject a stream of thick, tensile webbing aimed diagonally and upwards at a tree on the edge of the courtyard to nimbly pull him out of the way of the charging army of horses with a relieved sigh. A sloppy maneuver, but his aerial support was still engaged in pursuit of Star’s meddlesome friends.

At the moment, Jackie managed to reach a speed that could outpace the soaring eagle across the curved walkways of the cemetery courtyard, though the linear paths and soft, unsupportive dirt off the beaten road made it impossible to lose their hunter at this current speed. On occasion, it would make its presence known with a lunge that nearly grazed the back of Marco’s hoodie, and despite his injury, the young man attempted to strike back with a few karate chops to shoo the bird away. “You holding up okay?” Jackie checked in on her co-pilot.

Marco took a moment to collect his thoughts as he successfully fended off his flying opponent once more: he was once again fighting for his life on what was supposed to be a fun gathering with friends, his back was doing an even better job of killing him than his adversaries, which was only aggravated further by the rushing through a cluttered graveyard at breakneck speed on a flimsy skateboard without the proper safety equipment. At the same time though, he remembered who he was riding with, and how she saved his life just moments earlier when a few weeks ago he was unsure if she was even aware of his existence. All in all, Marco couldn’t complain. Sadly, he wasn’t able to convey that sentiment as he turned to face her, “Jackie! Watch out!”

Jackie’s eyes shot back forward to find that she had finally circled back to the central courtyard where Star and Ludo face off. The villain had been force to retreat, but more pressing was a herd majestic warnicorn, some of the stragglers of Star’s battalion, that now galloped across her path. The sudden shock forced the skater girl to veer off to the side and the change in angular momentum sent her and Marco tumbling to the ground, bodies tangled together due to her instructions to hold on. Marco felt another sharp jolt of pain race up his back as he fell to the ground, but took solace in the fact that he could at least serve as a cushion for his, for lack of better word, crush. Jackie was no stranger to wipe outs and perked up again quickly, her eyes soon taking in the sight of a large raptor swooping from above talons first. Thankfully, Star was no longer pre-occupied at the moment and was able to assist, “LICORICE NET!”

With a flick of her wrist, her wand conjured cobweb of red, sinewy fibers following a simple arc to entangle the large bird, bringing it to the ground and quickly adhering to the dirt so tightly that the once mighty bird couldn’t break loose, emitting an increasingly pathetic series of squawks. Finally able to relax, Jackie slowly rolled off Marco’s body and collapsed onto the ground in a heap. Several minutes of pure speed skating left her calves feeling like a pair of fire hydrants strapped to the back of her legs and her lungs struggled to keep up with the demand for oxygen. “Dude,” she could barely muster, her system still processing the adrenaline. “Are things always this crazy?”

Marco was also in the middle of his cool down process, and gave a similarly breathless response, “This is easily in the top five.”

Emotionally as well as physically exhausted, Star felt tempted to join her two friends on the ground, but things were never that simple. Still distracted from her assist, she barely registered the loud thunk of an overgrown arachnid landing behind her now that the Warnicorn stampede had thinned out. Star turned to face her nemesis once again, but the small bird was easily dwarfed by the massive ball of flame emanating from his wand. The one feature that wasn’t overshadowed was the utterly frenzied look across Ludo’s beak, a crooked smile that brought with it every frown line on his face and every sinewy vein in his sickly yellow eyes. The entire right side of his frame seemed to quaver under the weight of his final attack fueled by as much anger as he could muster, an easy task given his night thus far. Lurking in the shadows, planning out each strike in advanced just like the voice told him to had failed, now it was time for good old fashioned unfocused rage. “GAME OVER, BUTTERFLY!” He shrieked, expecting victory shortly.

“Star!” Marco exclaimed as the girl went slack-jawed in response to the ambush. 

Marco doubted that neither he nor the also still prone Jackie could reach her in time, nor could Star escape Ludo’s point blank range. However, out of the corner of his eye, Marco caught sight of his crush’s enchanted skateboard lying just a few feet away from the two of them and, mustering what little will power he had left, inched over to it. With few other options, Marco grabbed the board by the tail end and gave it a heavy push after angling it in Star’s direction, sending it casually rolling into the young girl’s ankle while Ludo snarled in anticipation for his final attack. Star was able to shoot a look towards the nudge against her and remembering how it served Jackie and Marco earlier that evening she rolled it under one foot and stood proudly on it right before Ludo could release his final blast of energy. The former king could barely register the smug look on the Butterfly girl’s face before seeing a familiar light blue sheen as once again the magic barrier blocked his attack. However, this time he had the added benefit of being close enough to experience the blowback of his assault colliding violently with the impenetrable wall, and the refracted magical blast had enough force to knock him and his mount backwards, separating beast and rider. Still riding high on frustration, Ludo rose into a sitting position to survey the battlefield. To his right, he noticed that his pet spider had been flipped onto its back by the same blast and currently rocked back and forth pathetically in an attempt to self-right itself. It was utterly useless for a counterattack, just like her partner on the other side of the arena who had learned to embrace his confectionary prison and no longer offered as much as a squawk. Surrounded by such incompetence, he could only slam his fists against the ground with a petulant grunt. It was at this point that abject horror set in. “No… No… No… Where is it?” he dropped all pretenses of a cool, collected leader once he realized that while soaring through the air, his outstretched, strained arm dropped his precious weapon.

Adding insult to injury was the sight to his left, where a calm, carefree Star rolled forward with a few relaxed strokes of her foot to where the wand now rested. “Wait! That’s not yours!” Ludo shrieked as he made a mad sprint towards the girl, but couldn’t reach it before the young girl leaned over to pick it up.

With no other options, Ludo found himself at the feet of the comparatively taller girl reaching as far as he could for his weapon before resorting to jumping for it. “You will give it back to me!” Ludo barked with conviction, but all he did was wear himself out.

After the brief exertion, Ludo found his quads quite sore and hunkered over while he caught his breath, better so that he couldn’t see Star roll her eyes in what could pass for sympathy. Eventually, he looked up to find Star figuratively and literally looking down on him. Behind her, her long-time partner gradually skulked up to her side, Jackie acting as a crutch underneath his left arm.

The least Ludo could do now was save face. “Heh heh heh, well, this was all good fun tonight, just like old times! I try to steal your wand, you shoot a narwhal at me, I try to hurt your friends. Oh a jolly good time was had by all!” he laughed through a fake smile that took up all his remaining energy. “So, I’ll just be heading back home, and we’ll do this again next Friday. You can even bring your new friend… uh… I want to say Jenny…”

With a flat expression, Star fluidly pocketed her own wand and equipped a pair of stylized scissors. Continuing the motion, she reached behind Ludo and made a slicing motion through the air leaving a pitch black pulsating opening in its wake, spurring an increasingly unnerved look from the small creature. Before he could plead his case, the oddly designed boot of the young girl collided with his stomach and kicked him into the warp point, which sealed itself shortly after. “And… we’re done here.” Star sighed, the fight leaving her exhausted in every feasible way and leaving the hyperactive girl unaffected.

Jackie picked up the slack in her attitude and reached over for the princess’s shoulders with her own arm and pulled herself over to her, Marco being jostled a bit in the process. “Star! Oh, man I’m so glad you’re OK!” Jackie exclaimed, tightening her arm for a hug that placed her chin on Star’s shoulder.

Once more, Star had the compulsion to break off embrace as soon as possible, indicated by her gently placing a hand on Jackie’s shoulder and pushing gently away until her fingers slid gracefully off her back. She told herself again that the fight with Ludo had left her uncharacteristically frazzled, and she needed some space. Still, common courtesy was to help alleviate Jackie’s concern, and bring a smile back to her face. “Well, yeah, thanks. Ludo’s been pretty intense lately.” She began exasperated, but her voice soon rose to an uptick to its more familiar enthusiasm. “But, hey, what about you! You were so cool all *whiz* and *ploom* and ‘Marco Diaz! Come with me if you want to live!’ I mean, honestly if you weren’t there, I don’t think…”

Star caught herself before she could continue the unpleasant train of thought. Jackie caught the apprehensive look in her eye even as she fretfully broke eye contact to cope with the grim images of what could have been that her mind conjured. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Marco’s weakened form slumped in a similar fashion, knowing that his well-being was causing her distress. Having seen how insecure the girl could be earlier that night, the young woman preferred not to see her friend in such a sad state a third time and shot her a stern look. “Star, don’t even think that. We all got out of this OK,” Jackie coaxed, placing her hand on Star’s shoulder, though this time the girl welcomed her physical contact. “Besides, I think Mackie Hand here would have been just fine on his own. I mean, the guy fought off a small army single-handed. Right?”

While Star was her primary concern, Jackie could tell from just a glance that Marco blamed himself partially for their near defeat at Ludo’s hand, so she decided to lift both their spirits at once. She could feel the boy’s posture erect itself under her arm, proof that her flattery worked. “Yeah, it was nothing really.” The young man felt a blush rise to his face as he blathered in faux modesty, grateful for his crush’s recognition but at the same time knowing this wasn’t the place to bask in it.

Luckily, the boy’s adorably awkward display helped bring back Star from the deep end, putting a smile back on her face as she re-established eye contact with her best friend. “Heh, yeah I saw that. You held up pretty good for yourself.” Star chuckled, her voice regaining some of its old vigor.

“Yeah, girl, we all had a part to play. Don’t feel like you didn’t do enough.” A third voice rang out in support of Star, Janna having emerged from her sanctuary now that the coast was clear.

Unceremoniously, she resumed munching on her bag of crisps, much to the chagrin of Marco, “You didn’t do anything!”

Unable to argue with such logic, Janna could only ram a greasy, crumb-laden palm into the small of Marco’s back. The surge of pain caused Marco to thrust his whole frame forward with a meek yelp, with Jackie barely recoiling out of the way at the last moment, “OW! Janna, you… actually fixed my back.”

“That’s not the only thing I can do with my hands…” Janna let the offer linger.

“Pass.” Marco flatly responded, dismissing the grim girl.

“Eh, suit yourself.” Janna shrugged her shoulders dismissively, knowing when she wasn’t wanted, despite what people thought. “Ooh, a giant spider.”

After Janna’s exit, Star walked into the empty space between her two friends and laced an arm around each of their shoulders. To Jackie’s relief, this hug lacked the force of Star’s other embraces, instead merely hooking around her and Marco’s collars and letting their frames support the weight of her body as she hang suspended with a content smile on her face. “Aw, you guys are the best.” Star cooed, digging her hands ever so slightly into the backs of the two teens, bringing them that much closer together.

Star broke off the hug and bounced a few steps back with childlike glee, giggling, “Okay, now that we got Ludo out of here, who’s ready for Bon Bon! Come on, Janna!”

The séance leader in question stood off to the side with Ludo’s pet spider, now reoriented, lying at her feet. The arachnid had taken the loss of her ill-tempered master quite well, and was more concerned with the bag of chips Janna munched on intermittently. Once in a while, she flicked a crispy treat down towards the spider’s gaping maw who then devoured it, a simple spectacle that appealed to her love of the morbid and overruled Star’s call for her.

While Star waited for a response, Jackie nondescriptly backed over to the site of the ritual. “Sorry, Star, but I don’t think the ritual’s gonna happen tonight. Too much… negative emotional energy for a clown like Bon Bon.” The skater girl muttered while kicking dirt onto a shattered remnant of skull identifiable only by a dried out rubber nose.

“Aw, but I need child-like amusement to calm my fragile emotional state!” Star whined, letting her arms and head dangle in a juvenile fashion.

“Star, I agree this night was pretty intense, but I think we still have some important business to deal with.” Marco responded, eying a bony protrusion from the girl’s oversized backpack.  
Star silently conceded to her friend and, with a steady hand, withdrew the wand in her backpack and held it face up in front of her. Staring back at her was half of the literal crown jewel of her family’s wand, a treasured keepsake she lost to save the life of a friend from a madman, which she got back thanks to her own friends returning the favor. Despite her upbeat demeanor, she considered the event something of a personal failure (Corn knows her mother gave her grief for it), and the delayed revelation that she had reclaimed it monopolized her attention at the moment. “So… what are we gonna do about it?” Marco asked again.

The more Star gazed upon the skeletal wand, the more ill-at-ease she felt, yet at the same time its sinister mystique demanded her attention. The fingers of her opposite hand attempted to slip behind the star shaped fragment, but it seemed permanently fused to the slab of concrete behind it and she did not want to force it. “Nice wand, you should totally double wield it!” Janna’s throaty voice rang out from over her shoulder.

“Oh, no! I don’t want anything to do with whatever nasty magic Ludo was messing with.” Star finally tore her attention from the wand with a dismissive head shake that brought her attention back to a shocking sight. “WAH! GIANT SPIDER!”

Earlier reservations gave way as Star instinctively pointed her wand in the direction of the arachnid casually sitting at her feet, getting a rare start out of Janna. “It’s okay, she’s with me now. I’ll give her a good home.” She retorted, not noticing her charge scuttling away.

Following her movements, the spider approached her still entangled sister-in-arms and began futilely gnawing at the net that weighed the proud bird down. “Hmm, an eagle… I can work with that.” Janna pondered, beginning to stroll over to the pair.

With their resident warlock distracted, Marco was ready to call the séance a lost cause. “Look, we should probably be getting home. We can let your mom know about the wand, and honestly, I think we should get out of here before the authorities get here.” Marco argued, eyes slowly gazing over the piles of upturned dirt, desecrated bodies and shattered gravestones resulting from the night’s festivities.

With a sigh, Star finally sheathed the dark wand and replied, “No, it’s Friday. Tonight is Mom’s weekly bridge game with the Magical High Commission. But yeah we should probably get going.”

Star, Marco, and Jackie thus gathered their supplies from the initial ritual site and made their way back to the cemetery entrance, Janna opting to stay behind and assist her new pet. Star led the path as Marco and Jackie hung closely together at the back of the group, the latter needing to get her bag of supplies and skateboard and thus lagged behind. With the night’s festivities winding to a close, Marco took stock of the night’s occurrences and thought it best to apologize to his and Star’s guest. Given everything she had been through, he would consider himself lucky if Jackie would as much as want to talk to him again after this disastrous night. Regardless, he began apologetically, “Look, Jackie. I’m sorry things got so… crazy tonight. It was supposed to just be a fun exercise in dark magic between friends, and you almost got hurt. I never wanted you to get wrapped up in all of Star’s craziness and if anything, I want to make it up to you.”

Marco immediately acknowledged what an understatement this was, but to his surprise, Jackie was fairly accepting. “Yeah, I could have done without the whole threat against my life, but hey, careful what you wish for, I suppose.”

Marco didn’t expect such a flippant response, but, grateful that the young girl wasn’t traumatized he felt safe pushing the conversation further, “What do you mean.”

Jackie began again, with an almost longing air to her voice, “Well, ever since Star started going to school here, all this crazy stuff’s been going on: the football game, that weird field trip, your arm going all weird.” She caught Marco’s evasive look at that last comment, and decided to get back on topic, “And, well, maybe it’s the adrenaline junkie in me, but part of me always kinda wanted to get in on the action, to go on some great adventure, instead of just school and homework.”

This was a sentiment not lost on the boy. After all, just a few months ago he found himself making a similar claim and to his luck a certain magical princess came barging into his life and showed him a world from which there was no turning back, “Heh, yeah it’s never a dull moment with Star around.”

The conversation was continued by a stifled laugh from Jackie, which Marco instantly caught upon along with a bashful look from the girl, “No… no… I’m sorry, that was bad of me.”

“What was so funny about that?” he asked with a faux accusatory side glance.

Jackie passed a hand through her washed out tresses, a common nervous habit of hers, while she formulated her response. Fearing her intent was misinterpreted, she picked her words carefully to show there was no ill-will, “Look it’s just, you were always the safe kid growing up. Not that that’s a bad thing, but you never really did anything to stand out, you rarely talked, and then there was that time you wore a helmet to gym class in middle school.”

“Hey, those bathroom shower stalls are slippery!” Marco barked defensively.

“Look, let me finish,” Jackie snapped back, but in a reassuring tone, “It’s just, well, seeing how you handled yourself tonight kinda through all of that out the window. Now, you’re sidekick to a magic, butt-kicking princess from a fantasy world. You were willing to risk your life to save her, and the way you worked together to stop that bird-thing… It’s just like, when did you get cool on me?”

Marco had no answer ready for that question. His brain had entered a soft reboot process from the nigh-improbable scenario of Jackie paying him such a high complement, with her bright sincere eyes and a playful smile waiting patiently to know his secret. Ultimately, he spouted the simplest answer his rattled mind could think of, “Well, huh, like I said. Spend enough time around Star, and, uh, you pick up a few things.”

“Yeah, Star is pretty cool.” Jackie agreed, though her eyes trailing off suggested a set of conflicting emotions. Marco picked up on them quickly, wondering if maybe it was a bad idea to keep bringing up his best friend when trying to impress a girl he likes. Luckily, the girl looked back to him and changed the subject. “Still, I think I’d have a much better time if someone wasn’t trying to kill me. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Oh you mean a second… day out together?” Marco quickly recovered, halting in his tracks.

“You could call it that, sure. I’ve got chores to do around the house tomorrow morning, so maybe come by my place around 11:00. We can just, sort of hang out.” Jackie continued casually.

Marco tried to reel in his wide-eyed stare as he tried to process how quickly things were progressing, and his mind seemed to go even faster. “Uh… sure. Sounds great.”

“Cool. Here, I’ll give you my address.” Jackie withdrew a pen and sheet of notebook paper from her school backpack and quickly jotted the information down before handing it over to Marco. “Well, see you tomorrow! Take care, Star!”

Over the course of their conversation, the teens had reached the front gate to the cemetery and, having said her goodbyes, Jackie set her skateboard on the sidewalk and glided off into the distance, a whimsical Marco seeing her off. He turned to find his roommate facing the opposite direction, the other girl’s departure lost on her as she found herself once again enamored with her spoils from the night’s victory. Eyes entranced by the discolored gem mirroring her own, she had no way to defend herself from the oncoming assault from her friend. “JACKIE LYNN THOMAS THINKS I’M COOL!” he exclaimed, smiling ear to ear.

Star let out a strained cough as a pair of lithe but firm arm seized her upper abdomen. “GAH! Marco… I can’t breathe.” Star rasped out, attempting to wiggle her way out as the boy only deepened the hug in bliss.

Luckily, though, Marco freed his friend once he got his excess joy out of his system, though his elation was still evident on the rare, glowing mask he wore. “Oh, man. You were right, Star. I shouldn’t have been such a buzzkill about tonight,” He manically recounted as his friend regained her composure. 

Marco’s obsessive side began to make its return as the reality of his situation set in, turning his whole body from side to side in sweeping gestures. “I mean, she actually wants me to come over to her house tomorrow! Aw man, aw man, what am I going to wear, what are we going to do? Is this even a date?”

Star finally got her breath back to find Marco in this state, but before she could offer some sound advice, the young man dismissed his own concerns with a single sweep of his hands. “No, no, don’t need to worry about that now. It’s like you said: I just need to roll with it, and everything will turn out fine. Right now, this calls for a celebration! When we get home, I’m making my special nachos!”

The young man strutted past Star with a comically out of place level of swagger, but the teenage girl let it pass before following suite. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome,” Star responded with a wry smile, ironically overwhelmed by the young man’s newfound energy.

For once, her constantly perturbed friend had finally found comfort with the world in the promise of a new, more enriched relationship with his long-time crush, and the positive vibes he gave off were infectious. Not that Star didn’t have a reason to feel good on her own. After all, she had finally reclaimed half of her wand and with the help of her acquaintances had vanquished Ludo, meaning the troublesome bird would be out of her hair for at least a couple months. And soon, there would be nachos. 

Yet, why was it, that when she and Marco stood side by side at a traffic stop, the young man literally bouncing on his heels in anticipation, that she felt so glum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, now that I've diverged the story from the series canon, the next few chapters can get into the fun stuff. Again, sorry how dense these last few chapters have been. I promise that the next chapter at least will be much breezier.


	3. Star After Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the middle of the night, Star calls for Marco's help when she thinks there's something in her Secrets Closet.
> 
> Anyway, I'm hoping that this chapter is a little less dense than my previous work, which is ironic given that this is the beginning of the original storyline. Yeah, this is my curse, I want to tell a simple story about two-three characters getting together, and I end up spawning a hundred thousand word epic just to get there. Speaking of which, if anyone feels that they know where this story is going, please don't spoil it in the comments, I'm the first person to admit that it is painfully obvious.
> 
> Warning: This story centers around a polyamorous relationship between teenage characters. If this offends you in any way, I apologize
> 
> Disclaimer: "Star vs. The Forces of Evil" and any related characters belong to Daron Nefcy and Disney.

Chapter 3: Star After Dark

A sharp ping resonated through the Diaz household’s kitchen, summoning Marco to the oven. Hands concealed in a pair of bright pink mitts, he opened the door and braved the influx of searing air to slide out the sizable tray inside, then took a moment to let the succulent aroma of his creation. He had come home in such high spirits that he felt that a simple tray of cheese and chips wouldn’t be sufficient for him and his friend who helped bring the successful outing about, so he poured his overflowing heart, and a good portion of the refrigerator’s contents, into the late night snack. “Marco! The movie’s back on!” Star called from the living room couch, eyes transfixed on the television.

“Coming!” Marco shouted from the fridge as took in the heft of the tray, then taking a softer tone only he could hear. “Some people just don’t get that art takes time.”

The young man took up his masterpiece and merrily marched to meet his friend at the coffee table where they spent countless evenings consuming junk food and even less substantive television. That night would be no exception, as the moment Marco set his offering down on the table, Star squealed in delight and scooped a generous portion of the chips onto her plate, the delicious triangle food being the only thing that could distract her from “Sewer Clown”. “You know, watching this movie, I think it’s for the best that the séance didn’t go as planned,” Marco droned on, letting his plate grow cold.

Star indulged her friend’s overanalyzing, reveling in the blend of tastes offered by the nachos. She strategically pulled her share from the center of stack where the majority of the toppings were concentrated, meaning each bite afforded the widest gambit of tastes imaginable. The creamy zing of the sour cream, the subtle crisp of the lettuce and tomato, the smooth savory blend of meat, bean and cheese, all resting on a once crisp tortilla chip softened by slow absorption of grease from the other ingredients all danced on her tongue and sent her into a state of bliss. Still, her senses weren’t completely shut off, and she answered her friends concern, “Ah, don’t worry about it. When he offers you a balloon, just turn and walk away. Or just shoot a warnicorn at him, easy as that.”

Marco simply nodded along, though he doubted that was an option for the kids in the film, or in the original 1,200 page novel it was based on. Silently nodding, Marco decided logic had no place in this sort of fair and set his mind on cruise control as he munched on a chip. He consumed them at a much slower pace than his friend, giving his palette more time to experience each chip whereas Star seemed intent of flooding her taste buds before they knew what hit them. However, his mind couldn’t stay off for long, and he soon found himself gazing intently at a chip held in his fingers, musing, “Do you think maybe I should make Jackie some nachos for our date tomorrow?”

“Hmph?” was the only input Star offered, her cheeks still bulging with chewed up nacho, turning to face Marco as she leaned in for seconds.

“Well, it’s just that she wanted to meet tomorrow at 11 o’clock. That’s long after breakfast, but a bit to earlier for lunch. I thought that, well, maybe she could use a snack.” Marco elaborated, eyes gazing off in the distance and upturning his palms in uncertainty.

With an abrupt gulp, Star settled back into her seat with her replenished plate of chips, plucking a meat drenched one before offhandedly responding, “Eh, couldn’t hurt.”

Alas, this sound advice wasn’t enough for the neurotic teen, and his mind continued to wander, “Or maybe I shouldn’t. I mean, this is essentially a date… I think. And have you ever heard of someone giving a girl they like nachos? I mean, who does that?”

“I’m sure it will be fine…” Star answered him in a raspy tone that a person more attentive than Marco could identify as a passive aggressive.

They also would have noticed the teenager slumping into her seat after answering and shifting her tired eyes directly at the T.V screen in front of her before taking another heaping bite of nachos. It was all body language that indicated that she was done with this conversation. Alas, Marco had no outside help to pick up on this, and thus he continued his rant, now anxiously running fingers through his hair, “I mean, I don’t even know if Jackie likes nachos. Heck, I don’t even know if she’s lactose intolerant or not. Or maybe she can’t eat gluten. Ah, man. I’ve known her for like 10 years, I should know this kind of stuff by…”

“MARCO! WILL YOU JUST GIVE IT A REST?” Star snapped with a mixture of spittle and chewed up nacho spraying in Marco’s direction, lunging forward from her reclined position.

The sudden outburst led Marco to immediately comply, even recoiling into the armrest of his side of the couch. The girl’s order was so loud, he anticipated the stairwell behind them to light up, followed by his parents calling out from their bedroom to see if everything was okay. No reaction came, though Star came to her senses on her own, her expression soon growing sheepish. “I mean,” she began in a honeyed tone after properly swallowing. “What happened to not worrying about tomorrow? Look, it’s going to be fine. Now just sit back, and enjoy the movie.”

With his friend back to her normal demeanor, Marco slowly scooted back to his position on the couch. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. No more Mr. Worrywart tonight. I’m just gonna let it roll.” Marco attempted a recovery.

Star did not wish to drag out the issue and turned her attention back to the film, waiting a few moments before idly asking, “Wait, who are these people? What happened to the kids?”

“Oh yeah, you see, the movie has a time skip at the half way point to when the characters are adults.” Marco calmly explained.

“Halfway point? The movie’s been on for almost two hours!” Star exclaimed, flailing her arms, before turning her attention to the still respectable supply of nachos before her. “I’m gonna need more snacks.”

And so, the two friends refocused their attention on the movie before them. Marco made good on his promise not to obsess over his pending meeting with Jackie, though only because another concern took its place. The convoluted mythology of the film missed him entirely as he spent a good deal of the remaining run time stealthily monitoring Star, whose recent eruption left him understandably worried. The girl had swung in the complete opposite direction from just moments ago and spent the rest of the evening in the same funk, robotically munching on the chips she once enjoyed with such gusto while her glassy eyes zoned out in the direction where the TV happened to stand. When her reserves ran out, it was back to the mother load for more, leaning forward to grab another helping as though her body ran on cruise control. Marco wanted to chalk it up to the roller coaster of a night they barely survived leaving her emotionally drained, but he had another theory that would explain her sudden change in behavior, one that he didn’t wish to entertain at the moment, one that would make his life all the more complicated. He also knew that questioning her glum behavior risked an emotional aftershock or a dismissive remark, so he sat in silence as the Star went through the motions. “So, uh,” Marco attempted to test the waters, “Good nachos, huh?”

“Uh huh,” was Star’s only response, given after a particularly harsh gulp.

He never even went back for a second helping of nachos for fear that breaking the cycle would bring unwarranted attention and reopen the sensitive subject, thus a majority of sizable bounty went down the young woman’s gullet. Eventually, the saga came to its end, prompting Star to finally rise from her seat and stretch her arms with a dramatic yawn, “Well, this was nice and all, but I’m beat.”

Marco was taken a bit off guard from the sudden movement, sensing an insincere tone in the girl’s voice as she attempted to excuse herself. Not wanting to address it directly, Marco turned his attention to the now barren platter of nachos that took up so much of her attention. “Yeah, I’ll take care of this, you go on and get ready for bed.” Marco subtly leaned in under the girl’s form and grabbed the tray as Star immediately jumped on the offer. 

The two friends made their separate ways: Marco bee-lining for the kitchen sink while Star ascended the staircase, nonchalantly dragging her overstuffed backpack up the steps with a series of thuds. She reached the door to her magically conjured, two-story add-on and headed straight for the aged, bulky treasure chest clashing heavily with the pastel aesthetic. Exhaustion weighing heavily on her, she withdrew her family’s wand and with a blue glow, the chains entangling the fixture collapsed in a heap allowing it to unhinge its gaping maw. With just as little passion, Star rummaged through her backpack and withdrew Ludo’s makeshift wand from her bag, gave it a once over to ensure a piece of the decrepit thing hadn’t broken off in transport, and lackadaisically tossed it into the chest before switching wands and resealing it. As she told Marco earlier, she would need to wait until the next day to take care of the recently recovered relic with her mother, but for now all she could do was make sure there was not even the slightest chance of it falling into the wrong hands. And frankly, she was just grateful to not have to carry around the creepy thing. 

With another blast of magic, her sea foam green dress was swapped out for a drab, grayish blue night gown and she made her way to her bed, falling gracelessly onto her back. Star had hoped to get to sleep as soon as possible, but in doing so she only managed to upset jostle the contents of her stomach, “Oof, stupid Marco. Why must your nachos be so delicious?”

The girl had never been the modicum of self-control and she always enjoyed Marco’s cooking, but something else overcame Star during her and Marco’s movie night. More specifically, it was a combination of things that the girl had to face over the night: stress, insecurities, several nightmare scenarios that could have happened had her friends not stepped up for her, and for some reason, Marco’s contrasting optimism just brought them to a rolling boil. It burned and churned deep within her, and the girl needed something to take her mind off of it, so she opted with the plate of snacks so lovingly prepared for her by the well-meaning, but ignorant, young man. Though, as Star now sought a cure for her ailing belly, she saw another potential catalyst for her emotional turmoil, a certain hair-streak sporting girl who had caught her best friend’s fancy. ‘No, you don’t wanna be going down that path, girl,’ Star thought to herself.

After all, it was illogical to suggest she had a grudge against Jackie. Would she have encouraged her best friend to get over his insecurities and pursue his decade long crush on her if she did? The two of them had been nothing but cordial to each other in the brief time they spent in each other’s social circles and the past night showed Star just how supportive and caring the laid-back girl could be, and thus she had no qualms against Marco dating her. That being said, this theory would only hold water if one assumed that Star claimed some sort of right over Marco and wanted the charming young boy for herself. And that certainly wasn’t the case…

Was it?

Whether or not it was, Star convinced herself that she needed to accept the direction the two teens’ relationship was taking, if only so she could get some sleep for the night. Her eyelids sealed together as she lay on the comforter and her raging consciousness quelled as she surrendered herself to the night.

It was only then that a series of thuds drew her attention. 

Eyes tearing open, Star catapulted out of bed with a speed no tummy-ache or uncertainty could hamper as she turned her attention to the bolted wooden door to the side of her bed: her Secrets Closet where her most dangerous magical relics were sealed away for safe keeping. 

And something was trying to get out.

 

“Marco! Marco! Marco!”

Marco Diaz opened his eyes, a decision he immediately regretted when he saw his room still cloaked in the darkness of night. Granted, he had just gotten to bed after the painstaking task of cleaning the kitchen, thus he did expect much more. Groggily, he pulled himself from the warm blankets of his bed and dragged his flannel pajama clad body to the door that called his name, punctuated by a rapid series of thumping. Opening the door, he found a manic Star Butterfly staring him down with dilated pupils, body tense with agitation. Given the girl’s emotional state this evening, Marco wasn’t quite sure what to expect and asked, “Star, what is it?”

“Marco!” she repeated with fervor unlike her previous, gluttonous self or her sleepy friend. “I think there’s something in my closet!”

Again, with the ride gamut of emotions the girl expressed that evening, the young man couldn’t help but bet cynical, “You mean your Secrets Closet? The one that can only be opened with your wand.”

“Yes!” Star yelled once again not reading the subtext.

The abruptness of the response tore through Marco’s tender ears, who winced before responding sharply, “Star! Keep it down! You’re going to wake up mom and dad!”

“That’s good, your dad’s huge! We’re going to need all the muscle we need.” Star rambled, her face brightening slightly.

“Look, Star. It’s late, and I want to get a good night’s sleep for my date with Jackie tomorrow.” Marco sighed, too tired to care what affect bringing up his crush had on Star, though he was willing to compromise. “If I come with you to check things out, will you calm down?”

Star gave an endearing nod in response and with the conditions set, Marco marched to the girl’s room dead-eyed as the girl rushed past him. The two eventually reached Star’s room and right on cue, a series of thuds echoed throughout the dark chamber. “You hear that! There’s something in here!” Star exclaimed, motioning her arms around the room before wringing her hands anxiously.

Marco did hear the noises, but was not impressed. “Star, it’s probably just the ventilation. It always makes weird noises like that at night.” 

This explanation did nothing to placate the young girl, who darted to her nightstand to retrieve her wand. Marco couldn’t help but roll her eyes as Star brandished her weapon in both hands, arms extended far in front of her as though it were a crucifix, while slowly stepping towards her closet. For the moment though, he played along and stoically stood in front of the door while waiting for Star to join him. “Okay, I’ll drop the sealing spell on the door.” Star whispered frenetically after getting into position. “Then, you fling it open and I blast away whatever’s inside.”

Another cacophony of thuds resounded through the air, and Star reflexively cringed in anticipation. Huddling her wand close to her chest, she muttered an incantation that in turn lit up the otherwise banal looking door for a brief second before fading away with the squeak of an aged hinge. Star took a moment to regain composure with her wand, while Marco mechanically reached the knob of the door, hoping to end this excursion soon and get back to bed. With a flick of the wrist, he swung the door to the side and both teens were able to gaze inside, one maintaining an unamused look while the other’s face fell loose from its tense countenance. “Oh, yeah, you were right, Star. It’s the evil Invisible Wizard who lurks in random closets across the west coast.” Marco sardonically droned, staring dead ahead into the fairly deep closet, the only shock that Star had managed to keep the numerous chests, outfits and study materials in fairly tidy order since he was trapped in there a few months earlier.

Alas, there was nothing in there that he would declare out of the ordinary and he thus reached for the door to close it. “Marco, I could have sworn I heard something coming from inside the closet!” Star insisted with a rare level of conviction.

“Star, look, you had a rough night.” Marco began, taking a more sympathetic approach. “You’re minds probably just playing tricks on you.”

With the mounting evidence, Star had begun to agree with his side of the story and would have said as much had she not heard another noise the moment she opened her mouth. This one was more of a gentle clopping sound, with the occasional rasp of something dragging against the floor mixed in. “AH! There’s another sound! I think it’s coming from there!” Star yelled, pointing at the path from the closet to her treasure chest.

Marco leered in that direction, but in the ill-lit bedroom he saw nothing. “And I think it was a mistake having nachos right before bed.”

“B-but…” Star began to sputter.

“I’m going to bed.” Marco stated definitively, making his way back to the entrance of the room.

He had taken only a few steps when Star made one more impassioned plea. “M-M-Marco! Look!”

Marco rationalized that taking one more look over his shoulder for the benefit of his paranoid friend wouldn’t cause too much of a difference in his sleep scheduled, so he complied. It turned out, he realized, that Star had a reason to be concerned.

Next to the battered, oversized treasure chest in Star’s room sat the backpack that she brought to the cemetery that night. It now laid on its side and Star’s family spellbook had been withdrawn entirely from its main pouch and sat open. This was no reason to be concern, as under normal circumstances, Marco could justify that in Star’s reckless abandon she knocked over the sack with enough force that it spilled out on its own. However, what that didn’t account for, was how the book now seemed to be furiously leafing through it’s own pages as though a strong breeze was traveling through the room. Marco’s eyes settled a little lower to find the being that had been causing so much trouble and, once his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he spotted a grey, cylindrical being no more than three and a half inches tall. There were no other discernable features on the creature, only that it seemed to bend at the waist around its middle and it currently used what should have been its face to swipe through the pages of the spell book until it finally stopped on one. He could also spot Glossaryck, the curmudgeonly resident of the old tome, hovering above the pages in a restless sleep with nothing but a HELL-O pudding wrapper keeping him warm. His beady yellow eyes shot open in annoyance of the flurry of pages, which transparently passed through his spiritual body, and quipped. “You know, there’s a table of contents…”

Before he could get a glance of his interloper, Marco he rushed over and dropped to his knees in an attempt to cup it in both hands, but the wry being lunged up through his hands and over his shoulder. The path of trajectory continued until it landed a few feet behind Marco, at which point it dropped onto its stomach and began convulsing, arching its back and flattening out to use traction to propel itself forward. It repeated this movement to slowly pivot in a clockwise fashion, but in that time, Star entered the fray and dropped a slipper covered foot on her midnight visitor without a second thought, letting out a sickening crunch that made even Marco wince. “See, Marco? I told you something got into my room.” Star took a moment to boast before the realization of what she just did settled in. “EW! EW! EW! GROSS!”

Any conviction Star held evaporated instantly as she lifted the offended foot in the air and hopped backwards. Marco held a similar sentiment as he took a quick, instantly regretted glance at the remains of their foe. “Yeah, I’ll go get my dustpan.” The young man retched before attempting to leave the room.

Star gathered enough of her bearings to join Marco by his side, though made to tread lightly for fear of dragging the gunk on her shoe on the precariously clean floors. The boy reached for the door knob, but yet again his ears were pulled back to the rear corner of the room, this time by what he could only describe as the crackling of their intruder’s demise slowed down and played in reverse. Finally, Star had the good sense to flick on the light switch by the door so that both teens could easily locate the three-inch long menace in the middle of the room. To Marco’s slight relief, the several gashes that erupted in the amorphous foe had begun to seal as it twitched in place to a steady beat of bones forcibly setting in place, a gruesome spectacle that left both him and Star speechless and immobile. “Just what is that thing?” Marco screamed, no longer worried about waking up his parents.

Star had her suspicions of where their unwanted guest came from, and this recent development helped confirm it; that, and the new source of light helped her make out a pointed shard of enamel on the back of what should have been the odd lifeforms head, or more appropriately, the tip of its finger. “Toffee’s finger…” Star eventually answered, just now remembering her journey into her malfunctioning wand weeks earlier, and the keepsake that came from it.

“Toffee? The guy who kidnapped me and trashed your wand?” Marco shouted for clarification, going wide-eyed. “And why do you have his finger?”

That was a story Star did not have time to regale. Soon, the finger’s fresh scar tissue blended into its uniform grey flesh and the thing flung itself in several short arcs towards the Star’s chest. Upon arriving at the summit, the shape stood erect on its small base and began flexing along its middle hinge in a hypnotic rhythm, turning the air around into a cloudy, lime green fog that soon seeped into the chains that encircled the chest. The padlock that formed the centerpiece of the chains slowly rattled back and forth as the florescent glow deepened before it pathetically dropped open and the bonds uselessly slid off the structure, turning their original rusted silver. Not long after, the chest lazily opened as far as it could and, contracting like a spring, the conniving digit bounded upwards onto the lip of the chest’s lid, bending forward at it’s knuckle as though to peer into the treasures held within. “What’s it up to now?” Marco yelled again.

This time, Star immediately had an answer. The finger of her fallen foe had been lying dormant in her closet for so long that she almost forgot about it, yet she had just added another relic to her magic trunk. The fact that this was the first time it tried to escape, and the possible connection between the two items left no doubt in her mind that the finger was after Ludo’s wand, and that the results would be disastrous if the two came in contact. “STICKY HAND SWIPE!”

Star winded her arm around for a grand pitch and the pink energy from her wand materialized into a thick, flaccid hand attached to a rubbery arm that continuously streamed out from the half star jewel. The limb traveled in a perfect arc directly into the open treasure chest before the lone finger could take a dip and, pulling her arm back, Star drew back the arm construct with the skeletal wand in its grasp. The wiggling limb funneled into her wand and right before the hand disintegrated, Star extended her free hand to grab the tibia of the relic and held it high. “Hah! Over here, ya dumb finger!” Star childishly taunted, waving the wand over her head.

It was uncalled for, but Marco looked upon his friend with a relieved smile, confident that they could deal with their foe easily now that they had seized its target. He turned back to the chest, where he expected to find a rather vexed looking finger bounding their way, but the small digit was out of sight. His first thought was that Star’s assumption was wrong and there was something else in the luggage that it coveted. He turned to his friend to share this theory, “Uh, Star, I think the finger’s after something… EHH!!!”

Marco eyes immediately gravitated upon a grey smudge that clashed with the bright pastel colors of Star’s wand. It was his theory that the finger had dived into the treasure trunk that was wrong, as apparently Toffee’s remains hitched a ride on the streaming pink arm as it reeled through the air in hopes of crawling its length to the skeletal wand. Unfortunately for the finger, the conjured hand released its grasp seconds before it could reach it, and wound up on the wrong wand as the pink trail returned to station. Star noticed the grey inch-worm on her wand not long after Marco’s outburst with a quick yelp of her own and stretched the arm with her wand out in front of her. Star didn’t want the infernal finger anywhere near her uncorrupted wand and surely could not drop it, but her other hand held the wand that the creature sought. Luckily, she had Marco to offer a helping hand, as she barked out, “Marco! Catch!”

With only a few feet between them, Star gently lobbed the skeletal wand over her head to Marco so that she could use her now free hand to pluck the finger from her weapon. Oddly enough, the slug-like appendage had quite the grip on her wand and the girl found it refusing to budge. With a bit of pinching and groaning, Star eventually felt the finger slide off the surface of the wand easily, but not of her own strength; rather, it slipped from her hand and shot out towards Marco, who had only managed to stumble a few feet backwards with Ludo’s wand and didn’t have enough time to shield it from the mischievous finger. It landed right where the bony wrist met the concrete slab and before Marco could react, it began to crawl around the back of the wand to its rightful place, in the conspicuous gap between the two fingers that clutched the makeshift head of the scepter. Things started to fall into place for Star: the cunning lizard’s missing finger, his seeming death playing a role in the destruction and rebirth of her wand, the appearance of another wand with a similar handicap making an appearance. Either way, one thing was apparent to the girl now, “Marco! Don’t let that thing reach the end of the wand!”

Marco had seen enough fantasy movies to know that letting two evil looking artifacts get in contact with each other was something to be avoided and immediately complied. He caught their opponent right as it turned over the edge of the concrete head and deftly pinched it. While he acted quickly, the wand apparently felt that the finger had gotten close enough and, to the boy’s dread, he noticed a familiar shade of lime green ooze out of the back of the scepter and to the base of the severed finger. The green energy seemed to form a physical tether and soon Marco found the small finger in his grasp magnetically pulled back towards its home on the wand and vice versa. “Oh, no no no,” he groaning, stretching his arm holding the wand as far to his left as possible to delay the reunion, but the bond only grew stronger.

The wand had begun to leverage in his wrist back towards the finger in his opposite hand which he attempted to similarly stretch in the opposite direction, but he could only get as far as shoulder level. The intensity of the green energy grew and crackled through the air, multiplying into numerous jagged bolts of magical lightning stretching between the two halves. As it took up more of the space in front of him, Marco could feel the tangible force of it all blowing back his shaggy brown hair and billowing the bottom cuff of his sleep shirt, to the point that he felt he had to turn away to prevent it from peeling the skin from his face. Worse though, he could feel the muscles in his right arm tensing to the bursting point and the finger in its grip edging ever so closer to the left and his left wrist threatening to snap right off if it didn’t let up. “Star!” He roared, fueled by the physical and emotional stress of the moment, “I can’t hold this for much longer.”

To her friend’s discomfort, Star bit her lip in response to his impassioned plea. Obviously, she wasn’t going to stand by and let one of her more dangerous enemies return to the mortal coil and hurt her friend in the process, but she didn’t know how to go about stopping him. She felt that they were past the point of prying the two pieces apart, as the increasing force of dark energy showed, so she quickly went through her knowledge of spells for something she could do with her wand. As she was forced to acknowledge earlier, many of her spells were more confrontational in nature, thus she only had a few spells that could even conceivably help Marco in this situation. Still, with yet another bolt of energy jumping between the finger and the wand, burying Marco in a wall of green energy, Star was willing to try anything. Between the crackling energies, she could make out the young man’s face pulled back in a scowl of pure anguish, eyes fused shut, teeth gritting to the breaking point, and it was more than enough for Star to get her head fully in the game. Putting on a determined face, Star took aim at the small finger in Marco’s quivering hand, closed her eyes and focused on her target, “GELATIN HOLDING CELL!”

The sight of her friend in peril encouraged Star to laser focus her spell on the diminutive finger in Marco’s hand and fire out a thin, cherry red stream of energy. Upon contact, Marco felt a warm glow cut through the wild torrent of energy around him and the slimy appendage began to suddenly expand in his hand, developing a rapidly expanding shell of squishy, jiggling jelly. As the edible cage grew, the bolts of energy were cut off from their conduit and with the tension released, the great deal of strength Marco summoned to keep his arms outstretched went to flinging the boy onto his back with a spark of green light. Even more violently, the energy from the wand continued to spew forth from the wand, flailing about like the heads of a rampaging hydra above the now prone teen. “Marco!” Star screamed as the trails of dark magic danced painfully close to her friend, and their unpredictable lashing kept her from coming to his aid.

To her relief, the lime green display of lights grew more sluggish overtime, and later, began to wither away as they accepted that their partner was no longer available to play and they woefully receded into the wand in Marco’s hand. With the display giving its final whimper, Star rushed to her best friend’s side and dropped to her knees, her heartbeat spiking when he saw the boy’s eyes closed and his mouth hanging open in a pained moan. “Marco! Marco! Please, say something!” Star pleaded upon dropping to her knees, kicking herself mentally for letting the boy fall into harm’s way a second time that night.

Thankfully, the boy responded quickly, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling for a brief second to recount recent events, irises carrying a green highlight from reflecting the dying spectacle of magic. Soon, he remembered where he was and turned his attention to the relics in his hands: Ludo’s wand, which still had nary a bit of flesh, and an appetizing cube of cherry flavored gelatin, save the grey digit suspended within. With everything resolved, Marco let out a relieved sigh as he slowly reclined forward, but caught his breath as a sharp pain returned to his lower spine, “Ah! My back!”

Luckily, the pain was miniscule compared to what he suffered earlier that night and he felt it would fade away with a good night’s sleep. Still, it didn’t keep Star from sweeping the boy up in another joyous hug upon learning that the boy was okay. Marco would have brought his arms together around the girl as well, but he then remembered the weight of the two items he still held in his hands and decided against it. Star broke off the hug when it wasn’t reciprocated, but held no ill will when she too took in the volatile artifacts, then re-established eye contact with the young man. “So…” he began, “You think your mom’s back from Bridge Night?”

A swipe of the dimensional scissors opened a rift to the royal chambers of Castle Butterfly and confirmed that Queen Moon of Mewni had indeed retired for the evening. Dashing out of the portal followed by a more cautious Marco, Star made a beeline for the grand, canopied bed that she shared with King River, currently a display of distorted arms and legs tangled in blankets and snoring away in blissful ignorance of their visitor. Moon’s slumber carried the regal air one would expect from the ruler of the kingdom, lying still on her back with an ebon facemask strewn across her eyes. Star sought to change that. “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” The excitable girl chirped, approaching the side of the bed and nudging Moon’s shoulder.

Her eyes were blocked off from the world, but the girl could still see Moon’s face shift from the serene of sleep to a mild annoyance at the voice of her only daughter at such an hour. A slender arm emerged from under the blankets and pulled said mask from her eyes, which slowly took in the expected, overeager face of her daughter. “Star,” She yawned while sliding her back up the headrest of her bed. “What was so important that you needed to come back to Mewni in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah, about that,” Star began innocently enough, folding both arms behind her back and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Remember a few months ago when that Toffee guy kidnapped Marco, and then made me use the sleeping spell to destroy the wand, which need I remind you I got back, but it was missing half the jewel, and we didn’t know where the rest of it was?”

Moon did remember that night, and it was not a particularly fond memory. Her expression grew more stern as she sat up and swung her legs out from under the covers to face the girl appropriately. “What happened now?” she asked calmly, fearing she would regret the answer.

Star recognized her mother’s tone as one she had grown to fear her entire young life. Usually, it would result in her being sent to her room until further notice, if not banished to an entirely different dimension, but she remained stalwart. “Well, I found it!” Star laughed nervously as she gingerly presented the skeletal wand that had caused so much trouble that night.

Moon’s eyes loosened as she took in the sight of the half-star jewel set in the concrete head. She quickly reached out to seize the wand, something Star easily allowed, and spent several moments looking over its length, not quite convinced it was real. “Where did you get this?” she asked in a more curious tone.

“Oh, you know. Ludo had gotten his hands on it somehow, we fought, but don’t worry, I’m OK. I was going to come by tomorrow to give it to you, but, you know, you and your bridge.” Star gave the abridged version to limit any more questions, but then froze in place as she remembered something else. “Oh, I almost forgot. Marco, give my mom the finger!”

“What?” Marco blurted before coming to his senses, “Oh yeah, here.”

Not wanting to touch the dreaded digit with his bare hands, Marco procured a small dessert plate from Star’s room to place the gelatinous matrix on, and now presented the morbid trophy to Queen Moon. “Yeah, long story. My wand was on the fritz, so Glossaryck had me go inside, and I found this thing. Anyway, it came to life earlier and tried to merge with the other wand, so I think they’re related. So yeah, you might want to keep them apart.” Star hurriedly explained in a flighty tone, still not quite sure what was going on.

Moon rose to her feet with the wand hanging in her hand to one side and motioned for Star and Marco to follow suite. Securing a robe hanging by the door, she entered the hallway and was quickly greeted by a pair of monolithic guards who promptly uncrossed their halberds and saluted their ruler. “Queen Moon. What brings you about at this hour, your majesty?” One barked with respect.

“At ease.” She stoically ordered. “I have something that requires your attention. Marco…”

Marco meekly stepped up to the much larger men and presented the wobbly prison cell. “Ooh! Gelatin!” the other guard beamed with childish rapture, nearly dropping his weapon as he leaned in to inspect it further.

Moon raised a disciplinary hand to cut him off. “Don’t eat it.” She began, prompting a disappointed whine from the sentinel. “I need you to take this to the dungeon and put it in the most secure holding cell we have.”

The two guards exchanged confused looks, but ultimately took up the plate and started on their way down the darkened hallway. “Outlawing gelatin…” one guard bemoaned to the other, “It was only a matter of time before Moon went mad with power.”

The queen rolled her eyes at this accusation but would have to deal with it later. For now, she motioned for her daughter and her partner to follow her further down the castle halls. After several minutes, the ephemera outlining the Butterfly legacy and intricate tapestry that helped Marco pass time over their trek became increasingly scarce and the brickwork behind them more threadbare until Moon finally veered down one of the many doors on the right hand side to an ill-lit staircase. The narrow, downward spiral led to a surprisingly spacious antechamber complete with a freestanding door frame manned by an anthropomorphic moose who waived Moon and her associates through, ignoring the sharp tones that came as Moon’s disturbing accessory passed. “So, where exactly are we?” Marco finally thought appropriate to ask.

“We’re in the Magical Archives!” Star answered with pep in her voice. “This is where my mom and the other members of the Magical High Commission meet and do all their magic stuff and store all the stuff that's too dangerous to keep in the castle. I’ve always wanted to come here, but mom said I wasn’t allowed.”

Moon ignored her daughter’s ecstatic banter, hoping it was obvious that this wasn’t meant to be a tour. Still, Star maintained her enthusiasm as she turned to her, “So, are we going to fix my wand?”

Feeling this observation held more merit, Moon answered, “Sadly, no. Your wand has been in the Butterfly family for millennia. Frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone alive who would know how to make the two halves of the jewel whole again.”

Contemplating who they would even start such a task, Moon twisted the wand in her hand to get a better look at said jewel, despite every fiber of her being telling her to look away. “And honestly, if this… thing is as volatile as you say it is, I would rather not attempt to try to disassemble it blindly. I’ll talk to Glossaryck and the other members of the commission next week, but for now, we have to put in safe keeping.”

She instinctively brought them to the third door on the left which, after she pressed a series of glyphs on a small keypad to its left, the door gently slid open and revealed another seemingly massive room lined with treasure chests lined up as far as the eye could see. Moon ignored most of them as she continued to truck on and eventually came to an elevated platform at the rear of the storage room. With the discolored, sickly green coloring to the wood and sharp edges forged from the bone of some fearsome creature, it surely made an appropriate holding cell for Ludo’s wand and with a quick flash of baby blue light, it unhinged its jaw just long enough for Moon to deposit the decrepit weapon. And with that, the case was literally and figuratively closed. Star was aware of her limited understanding of the exact nature of her wand and for once agreed with her mother that it was best left to the experts. With that, she reached into her bag for the dimensional scissors to get her and Marco home, but a voice cut her off, “Star, wait!”

Star shot a look at her mother, instantly picking up a slight pleading tone in her voice that contradicted the authoritative air she gave off that evening. Locking eyes with her, she noticed a similarly more inviting look in her eyes as she stepped down from the chest’s stand towards her. “Look, Star, I know we haven’t exactly had much of a chance to talk over these past few months, what with you studying abroad on Earth.”

“Yeah,” Star squeaked out, not sure if regular bouts with Ludo or her getting acclimated with Earth culture would count as “studying” but she would rather keep up appearances.

Moon continued, with Star once again noticing her body language becoming more personable, eye contact wavering and arms gesturing loosely, “Still, I’ve been busy too running the kingdom, and I realized I may not have always been there to support you when you’ve needed it. So, I guess I just wanted to let you know that I’m proud that you were able to handle this situation on your own.”

Star may have been flattered by this high praise had it not ended on a sour note. She may not have been the savviest young woman, but she could still pick up on subtle cues in her mother’s delivery, such as the crack in her voice suggesting that neither she could believe that she was actually commending her daughter for something. Not helping matters was the smile that came along with it, which went for pride, but ultimately said “at least you tried”. Star could never accuse her mother of purposely demeaning her, even if it was unintentional. As the woman said numerous times during taxing moments, her royal upbringing was even more demanding as a child and she was only hard on her because she wanted her to be the best queen she could be when her time came. And, over the past evening, she realized that she couldn’t blame her concern.

“Yeah, on my own,” Star repeated under her breath, as though it would make the claim more convincing.

Honestly, it was an inviting fantasy, the idea that she was the one who seized the wand from Ludo single handedly like the great hero Echo Creek saw her as. That she didn’t freeze the moment Marco found himself at Ludo’s mercy, reducing her to a sobbing mess ready to sacrifice it all to save him, that the boy’s crush didn’t need to intervene to bail him out and give her a second wind, or that Marco didn’t risk his life a second time that night to prevent the return of a dangerous enemy. Still, genuine praise from her mother was hard to come by, so she decided to keep up the charade. “Well, it’s been nice catching up tonight,” She began with a nervous laugh, “but, I have to get Marco here to bed. Bye, Mom! Love you!”

Star couldn’t reach her dimensional scissors fast enough as Moon returned her farewell and she and a rather befuddled Marco hopped through a portal back to the young girl’s now cluttered bedroom. Marco immediately excused himself for the night, Star couldn’t blame him given what he had been through, and this left the girl alone in her room but nowhere near ready to go to bed. Up until her talk with her mother, Star had been able to distract herself from the implications that the night had brought, whether it be the trashy movie she enjoyed with Marco, stuffing her gullet with nachos or the adrenaline rush of her midnight visitor, but with a simple complement the young woman could deny it no longer: she choked tonight, and her best friend in at least one world almost paid for it. 

The possibility of defeat had never been a concern for the young woman. A lifetime being raised by the Mewni royal guard instilled her with military instinct and her own birthright gave her the confidence that belied her heritage, which combined with her unique upbeat nature, blossomed into a carefree attitude that carried her breezily through life. Her numerous victories against Ludo’s forces over the past years and the power trip of her all powerful wand only reinforced this belief, and she felt that things like training or practice were unnecessary. Sure, she almost lost said wand to Toffee a few months earlier, conveniently right after getting an earful from Marco about her reckless behavior, but she easily bounced back and wasn’t any worse off afterwards. However, this recent loss had burrowed under her skin and refused to resurface. The potential emotional loss was bad enough, and Star could deal with the knowledge that it was her friend’s crush that helped her, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized why it bothered her that Ludo of all people nearly brought her down. Ludo. The self-proclaimed monster king who never bothered to evolve his strategy beyond throwing more and more soldiers at her at the most inopportune time, had manage to catch her off guard: waiting for her to make the first move, mastering magic on his own in just a few weeks, raising those bizarre beasts to augment his natural abilities and forcing her hand once he had taken Marco out of the equation. The avian was defeated, but there was no doubt that he had stepped up his game, while she had barely just scratched the surface of her own powers. Star listlessly gazed over her family’s spellbook, which was still open after Toffee’s finger used it, yet Glossaryck had no trouble going back to sleep in her absence. That slumber wouldn’t last as Star knelt down and whispered, “Psst, Glossaryck.”

The small creature’s eyes flicked open, giving his comparatively large owner a tired look. “Star, it’s late. What do you want, milady,” he yawned, before correcting his tone.

“Yeah, sorry.” Star hurriedly sighed, “Look, I know it’s late, but I was just wondering if maybe tomorrow you could, well, help me with my magic training.”

Glossaryck had to wonder if he was dreaming for a moment, but then remembered his dreams usually had more pudding and less adherence to three-dimensional physics. True, Star’s mother had entrusted the girl’s magical training to him and recently asked him to increase said tutelage, but the cost of being contained to a magic tome meant that he was only able to initiate lessons when said book was open which, with no direct offense to the princess, was few and far between. “Uh huh,” He mumbled, erecting himself to a sitting position. “And this couldn’t have waited until the morning because…”

Star didn’t appreciate Glossaryck’s tone, but knew she deserved it. Gazing down at the book dweller, she fired back, “Look, I know that I haven’t been the best student these past few months, and I don’t always appreciate you, but… I almost lost you tonight. And I almost lost Marco, too.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Glossaryck retorted in a snappy tone, not sure whether the girl was aware that he was perfectly conscious of everything that happened to his tome while he was sealed inside. “Not that it’s a surprise you value Earth Boy more than me.”

Again, Star knew that mouthing back would do nothing for her case and carried through, “Look, I know I screwed up last night and you almost got hurt, and I really don’t want that to happen again, so I was wondering if maybe you could teach me more about magic. That way, I’ll be able to protect my friends.”

For added effect, Star raised her eye level ever so slightly just so the tears of guilt forming in her eyes could catch the moonlight for a slight sparkle. Between the forced sentimentality and the girl’s lack of drive in the past, Glossaryck had his doubts whether this was a good idea, but simultaneously was surprised that the girl took initiative for once. He had learned in his years as her mentor that Star may not have been the most focused, but when she did commit to something up front, she had the decency to see it through, thus all he could do now was try to make the most of it. “Well, I’ve heard worse reasons for wanting to learn magic,” he scoffed, not wanting to show his hand. “Anyway, we’ll begin bright tomorrow morning. 8:00 am.”

Star nodded in return and closed the book when Glossaryck turned back over in his sleep. She then returned to her own bed and followed his example, feeling somewhat better now that she had aired her insecurities. Whether or not she would succeed or fall flat on her face tomorrow was yet to be seen, but in the end she determined that just taking the step to improve herself was worth something, to be the person her mother wanted her to be, the kind of opponent the likes of Ludo and Toffee would fear, and the kind of friend Marco would know he could always depend on.


	4. Scissor Kick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco gets more than he bargained for when he borrows Star's dimensional scissors for his date with Jackie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, I apologize for how long it took to get this chapter up. As you probably could tell, this episode is an alternate take on the episode "Running with Scissors", ergo it's a bit hard for me to get motivated to write when I have to follow an existing episode's format so closely (and an episode I'm not too fond of personally, but that's for another day). Anyway, this will be the last "re-write" episode for a long while, so I hope you enjoy it. The next chapter should be a fairly short one, and after that is one that I'm really looking forward to. Also, see the bottom for a bonus!
> 
> EDIT* as of 5/4/2018 I've made changes to this chapter, cutting out some of the pretentious prose, making Marco's ending a little more vague (you know when you write something profound, but then can't re-read it without flinching? that's how I felt about parts of this chapter). Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 4: Scissor Kick

Despite all the insanity of the night before, Marco managed to get up at a reasonable hour of 8:00 am the next morning. Jackie would be expecting him in a few short hours and now that he had fulfilled his promise to Star the night before, he was now fully within his right to panic. Granted, he had a few hours to clear his head and approach the morning with a refreshed perspective, so rather than his usual compulsive breakdowns, he calmly sat down at the breakfast table over a bowl of cereal while outlining his plans for the day. ‘Maybe we can go to the mall? Nah, too crowded. See a movie? No, we’ve been to a movie before, this needs to be special. Skate park? Oh, no, I’ve never been on a skateboard my entire life. I don’t want to fall on my butt in front of her. Come on, Diaz’ Marco brought his fingers to his temples for a deep massage, distorting the skin around his eyes in frustration. ‘Jackie thinks you’re cool! Don’t blow it!’

Hoping an idea would come to him soon, Marco brought his now empty bowl and silverware to the kitchen sink where he noticed a matching set left haphazardly in the rack, the barest effort made to rinse them out. With a sigh, he found himself putting away Star’s bowl as well, though he was not so much annoyed with cleaning up after her as he was surprised that she had had breakfast before him. To no one’s surprise, Star was always one to enjoy her lazy Saturday mornings, thus when Marco found the halls barren this morning, he assumed that the young woman was still in a peaceful slumber. Marco pondered this as he wiped down the counter, until he found another gift from the young girl, a pair of dimensional scissors he nearly cut his hand on while making broad circular motions with his wash cloth. This prompted another eye roll, and Marco found himself marching back up the stairs, the blades clenched in his fist. 

Per Glossaryck’s instructions last night, Star sat cross legged in the middle of her room in front of her family’s spellbook, though her still heavy eyelids had other ideas. She ignored their pleas to close, arguing that her breakfast of Captain Blanches Sugar Seeds was well worth forgoing sleep so that she could listen to her upcoming lesson with the utmost focus. Sure enough, the small blue imp materialized from the aged spine of the book with an air of professionalism he didn’t get to show off often and, never one for formalities, he began. “Now Star, can you tell me in your own words what magic is?” The teacher asked with an even less fitting sincere tone.

Not wanting her ignorance to show, Star spouted the first answer she thought of, “Well, yeah, uh, it’s when I wave my wand around and a bunch of stuff happens!”

Glossaryck wasn’t expecting much from this first lesson with his obviously unprepared student, but decided that he could only work with what he had. “In a way, yes.” He began on an encouraging tone. “Magic, technically, is the concentration of the energies that flow between dimensions that mewmans, with or without their wand, can use to manipulate the world in ways that go against the laws of reality.”

To demonstrate, he reached out his arms and in his embrace spawned a cup of pudding, lid pre-peeled and a spoon soon followed. Before he could dig in, though, a noise cut through from beyond Star’s door. “Star!” Marco called out. “Did you use your dimensional scissors to go to the grocery store because we ran out of cereal again?” 

With the evidence downstairs, Marco felt it safe to assume the girl was awake and had no qualms about knocking on the door to demand entry. Star’s attention immediately snapped to her friend, but Glossaryck was the first to excuse himself. “You wait here.” he instructed before disappearing in a puff of pink smoke.

The blue imp appeared right in front of the young girl’s locked door right before a mocha colored fist could rap against him. Marco thankfully had fast enough reflexes to pull his arm before contact with a quick yelp. “May I help you?” he asked with the patronizing tone that never failed to rub Marco the wrong way.

“Hello Glossaryck,” he responded with an equally flat voice. “Look, I’m just here to give Star her dimensional scissors back, then I’m heading out.”

As much as Glossaryck would have enjoyed the alone time with her newly dedicated student, he had to refuse. “I’m sorry, but Star can’t be bothered right now. We’re in the middle of magic training.”

While Marco cared for Star dearly, he was also her classmate and could attest that the young woman did not normally take to studying, so he took this news with a quick face fault. “Star? Studying? Willingly?” he couldn’t help but respond.

“I’m just as surprised as you are, but she literally begged me to give her some tips last night. Something about ‘being there for her friends’ or some other thing,” Glossaryck rambled dismissively.

A brief recap of the previous night flashed in Marco’s head and he immediately regretted his snide remarks earlier, but nevertheless he presented the scissors in his hand, “Well, can you get these back to her at least.”

“Hmmm,” Glossaryck hummed in yet another tone seemingly designed to pester, “Not a good idea. I’d rather not give Star any distractions during our lesson. I mean, let’s be honest, focus has never exactly been the girl’s strong point.”

Marco felt his opinion of the small blue man fall even lower at this jab at his friend, though he let him continue. “You can borrow them for a while, though. I’d recommend the Cliffs of Ydenshar, it’s something you should see at least once in your life time.”

“Once in a lifetime…” Marco’s increasingly irate expression turned flaccid as he processed the magical being’s flippant comment and a devilish smile came to his face.

“Glossaryck! Where are you! I need your guidance!” Star called from inside her room in a playful tone, drawing her teacher’s eye.

“Well, I guess I might as well get back in there while Star’s still receptive. Bye, Margo!”

With that, Glossaryck warped back into Star’s bedroom, and for once a conversation with the creature left Marco feeling inspired. Clutching the sheers in his hand, Marco made his way down the hallway with an added bounce as the possibilities ran through his head, so enthralled that he couldn’t help but let out a whoop, “Thanks Glossaryck! Oh, man, this is going to be so awesome!”

Before he resumed his lesson, Glossaryck began to ponder, “Hmm, I wonder if I should have warned him about… Nah, he’s a smart boy, he wouldn’t really do that…”

Marco reached the address provided by Jackie the night before with minutes to spare and made gave the buzzer a quick jab. Hearing the muffled ring, he stood patiently with a knowing smile as a series of footsteps followed and then the door opened with a dry creek revealing Jackie’s mother. Marco had never met the woman, but even if she weren’t standing in the doorway of the girl’s home, he could still make the connection. She shared his crush’s broad facial structure, give or take a few laugh lines and the light shade of blonde was unmistakable, even though it lacked the trademark aqua streak. “May I help you?” The taller woman asked, her extended arm still kept the door ajar while her body still provided a barrier to entry.

“Oh, yeah,” The young man’s surge of confidence ebbed slightly when he realized he had yet to introduce himself. “I’m a friend of Jackie’s, Marco Diaz. She was expecting me to come over today…”

The woman dropped her incredulous expression and lowered her arm, switching to a welcoming gesture. Marco took the opportunity to enter the home and shot her a grateful smile, which she returned with a quick once over that left him feeling the slightest bit vulnerable. He rested in place waiting for further instruction, and the older woman added, “Jackie’s in her room tidying things up. You should check up on her. JACKIE! YOUR FRIEND IS HERE!”

The abrupt shouting took Marco by surprise, but he recovered quickly. After a few seconds without a response, the middle-aged woman curled her lip and reared up for another bellow, but Marco offered to go in her stead. “No, she’s expecting me, I’ll go see her. Thanks, Mrs. Lynn Thomas!” Marco returned in an attempt to foster respect.

“It’s just Ms. Lynn.” The woman corrected dryly. “When my husband dropped me, I figured I’d return the favor.”

“Oh…” Marco felt a tingle in the back of his neck as a wave of bitterness overcame Ms. Lynn, and once again he found himself getting off on the wrong foot which incidentally resided in his mouth. “Well, I’ll just check on Jackie, like you asked.”

Thankfully, Jackie’s mother didn’t hold a grudge and nodded her blessing. Marco began his way down the minimalistic, eggshell white hallway until he came across a door embellished with a cheeky tin stop sign, which he identified as the teen girl’s room. The door was sealed tight, as was the fashion for most girls her age, and a melodic pop-punk song seeping through explained why Jackie hadn’t heard her mother’s announcement, so he decided to make himself heard. “Jackie!” He announced with bravado, after giving the door a few rapid knocks, “It’s me, Marco!”

“Marco? Wait, hold on” Jackie’s voice chirped from the other side.

The song blaring from the radio quickly shut off and soon the door swung inwards to reveal the girl inside, which took the young man back quite a bit. Despite the boy’s better instincts, the first thing the Marco noticed was the girl’s simple wardrobe of a white, sleeveless tank top putting the girl’s supple upper arms on display and a pair of light blue shorts, both of which he remembered from Star’s near fatal slumber party a month earlier. He had the wits to take his eyes off her sleeping attire and stared her staunchly in the eyes, where he noticed her hair had more than its fair share of loose strands, though despite her vulnerable state, Jackie bore the same relaxed half-smile the boy had come to love over the past few years. Like her mother just moments before, she propped her body on the door jamb with one arm, but rather than come off as imposing, it merely served to keep her upright while the rest of her body slumped casually. He was thankful for the girl’s unprepared display, but not for the expected reasons. It dawned on him earlier that he was taking a large step by coming to see Jackie in her home and her giving such an inviting air helped suppress his nerves. Granted, with what he had in store for the young woman, it was going to be hard to keep him down. “Hey, I hope I’m not too early.” He opened, still aware that he may have caught the young woman off guard.

“Well, yeah,” Jackie continued with a slight guilty tone. “I… was still pretty wired when I got home last night and I couldn’t get to sleep. I just got up like an hour and a half ago, and I promised my mom I’d straighten up my room and finish some school stuff before I went out this morning, and… well, it kinda needed my full attention.” 

Jackie slumped in time with her verbal pause and Marco took the opportunity to peer into the girl’s room which, were he to be honest with himself, left a lot to be desired. As much as he pined for the girl, the orderly young man couldn’t help but wince at the sight of the quilted blankets spilling out the sides of her bed, the piles of CD’s, textbooks and unfinished homework projects fighting for dominance of her desktop, and despite himself, a quick peek into the closet showed that most of her outfits had missed their target in the hamper by fair margin. He shuddered to think what the room looked like before Jackie’s endeavor, but knew how inappropriate a comment it was, so instead he answered coolly “Hey, its fine. You should see what Star’s room is like in the morning.”

Jackie smiled at the consolation and backed up, “Yeah, well, I don’t think my mom will feel the same way. Give me a few more minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

Marco gave an understanding nod and stepped back himself as the girl gingerly closed the door and resumed the arduous task of getting things in order. The boy momentarily thought that he could build some goodwill with the girl by offering a second hand to help, but thought against it and retreated to the front room, realizing it held a number of unflattering implications. Chief amongst those was that the infamously tidy young man was appalled by how Jackie let her room fall into such a state of disrepair, though in reality, he held no qualms. Perhaps it was Marco’s crush making him less critical, but he merely wrote off the clutter as a side effect of her laid back persona, one that would rather live in the moment and seek out the next thrill rather than worry itself with tedious maintenance. Marco would be the first one to tell you that this was not a way anyone should live their life, Star certainly got the lecture from time to time, but it was a philosophy Marco himself realized he could benefit from in moderation. After all, the girl probably didn’t spend a good portion of the morning pouring over seven identical red hoodies to determine which one said “fun and adventurous”, shower for a solid twenty minutes to eliminate any trace of body odor, or meticulously comb every hair on his head to erase any evidence of this mania. Rather, she felt perfectly comfortable bearing her true self to him with almost no warning, a fact that the boy found quite encouraging.

To the girl’s credit, Marco only had to wait a few minutes before the girl came out in a more appropriate outfit of jean shorts and a t-shirt (which Marco hoped weren’t the same clothes he saw dangling from the edge of her hamper) and she called out to her mother, “OK, mom. Marco and I are heading out. I’ll be home by dinner.”

“Did you straighten up your room first?” She turned away from wiping a thin layer of dust off a picture frame to ask.

“Just did.” She replied with a smile as she motioned for Marco to follow her outside.

“Did you do a good job?” she followed-up, tightening her sights on the girl with the typical accusatory look.

Jackie paused at the front door with the knob still in her hand to answer again, “Yes mom, I made my bed, I cleaned of my desk and I took all my dirty clothes to the laundry room.”

“I just wanted to make sure.” Jackie’s mother sighed, “There’s no reason for you to slack off around the house, especially when it’s only your room I expect you to clean so that you can do whatever it is you do with your friends.”

Jackie silently hoped neither her nor Marco standing behind her saw her momentary grit her teeth. Thankfully, her mom did nothing to reprimand her and Marco stayed silent, perhaps empathetic as a fellow teen who deals with overbearing mothers on a daily basis. Still, she knew she would never win this argument if she shot back, and merely gave her a put upon, “I know, I know. I’ll see you later. Love you!”

“Love you, too, dear!” she cooed, as though the whole exchange never happened.

Marco followed the girl out the threshold where she took several more steps down the walkway before pausing. He now had his moment to show off surprise, but as he reached into her pockets he noticed the young woman seemed to disregard him. Back still turned to him, she swung her arms into the air and kept them precariously upright for a moment while a sharp wheeze of her taking a deep breath cut through the yard. Her arms abruptly fell to their original position and she smoothly exhaled while her limbs worked off their momentum swinging back and forth unassumingly. At the end of the gesture, she brought her hands together with a clap and turned to her friend. “So, what do you wanna do today? Mall? Movies? Whatever the heck Janna’s up to?” She asked with a now amiable smile.

Marco was willing to forget this recent display and returned her smile with a confident smirk. “Oh, ho, ho…” He chuckled while sauntering ever closer, “I think I’ve got something that’ll blow all those other options out of the water.”

Swiftly, Marco brandished his shears with and highlighted them with his other upturned palm. Jackie, though, didn’t get the intent, “You want to go… scrapbooking? Coupon clipping? Seriously give me a hint.”

The young man couldn’t help but find the girl’s baffled expression cute, still riding high off his swagger, so he sauntered forward for a proper display. “Here, let me show you,” he spread his arms in a prideful manner.

Opening up his memory banks, he drove the scissors into the air before him, leaving behind a stream of blinding light that opened up into a circular rift in Jackie’s front yard. Recognizing this tactic from the previous night, the girl gazed into the new portal but instead of a dark void, she saw a neon purple illuminated lounge seemingly built on clouds, with all manner of creatures hopping on bloated rubbery membranes sprouting from the ground. “These are the dimensional scissors Star and I use to go on all our adventures.” Marco elaborated, his tone taking on a child-like enthusiasm. “She… let me borrow them today while she’s practicing her magic. So now, the whole multiverse is our oyster!”

Jackie couldn’t help but smile at the young man’s demonstration as he continued, using the sharp tool like a cue stick to point out the different world. “This is the ‘Bounce Lounge’. They have all these different trampolines and inflatable things to, well, bounce on!”

Marco zipped behind Jackie and before she could look behind herself, he had torn yet another hole in the space-time continuum, unveiling a seemingly endless sea of people gathered around a lone food truck in the middle of the desert. “Or if you’re hungry, we can go grab some Goblin Dogs…”

Before Jackie could get a good look, two more windows opened up, with Marco standing in the center, motioning over his shoulder. “We can go to Quest Buy, too! Maybe get some more runes for your skateboard. There’s also the Mewni Market Square, they have the best deals on the weekends. OOH! Weekend! I almost forgot, there’s a root beer kegger at St. Olga’s this afternoon!”

Marco continued to merrily slash open holes to alternate worlds in Jackie’s yard until the young woman found herself surrounded by the near limitless options of the multiverse. Some were more mundane than others and not all of them were as great as Marco made them out to be (she had to personally ask him to seal the Cat Face Dimension), but he made quite the sales pitch and the boy’s sense of wonder proved contagious as she gazed at the remaining options with her mouth hanging open in anticipation. “Wow, you certainly are the worldly one… or is that otherworldly. Multi-worldly?” Jackie pondered amidst the gallery of portals, finding herself to be the one feeling out of place this time.

Dimensional scissors twirling around his finger, the young man smiled at this high complement. “Well, you did save my life last night…” Marco laughed sheepishly, “I just figured you deserved something special today. So, let me know which of these looks good to you!”

This time, Jackie felt her ego take an upswing, and decided she would take her suitor up on his offer. ‘Let’s see, too crowded, lines are too long, don’t want to catch bubonic plague. Hmm, that statue kind of looks like Marco…’ Jackie grazed the selection of worlds, hoping she could find an appealing one before her mother looked out of her window.

Luckily, a purple hued window caught her gaze with its rapid flashing of lights and chaotic sounds designed to snatch the allowance of young Mewmans. Upon further inspection, Jackie’s eyes lit up upon seeing the near endless rows of arcade cabinets frequented by otherworldly children whooping and hollering in joy and occasional frustration. Given her near brush with death Marco brought up, she was turned off from some of the more fantastical locales the boy had to offer and opted for something that would still sate her competitive side, but not risk life or limb. “Ooh, I want this one!” Jackie chattered excitedly, “Can you imagine how violent the video games are where Star comes from?”

With a satisfied chuckle, Marco made his way over to the girl while dispelling the other portals with a quick wave of his scissors until the portal capturing Jackie’s attention remained. “OK, Amethyst Arcade it is then. After you…”

For added flourish, Marco swept his arm towards the portal in a welcoming pose, accentuated by a warm smile beneath his sly, chocolate eyes. If it were anyone else, Jackie would have lost herself to laughter, but coming from the reserved to a fault teenager, the young woman could not help but find the gesture endearing. Jackie couldn’t be sure if it was once again her mind just struggling to associate this new, more assured Marco with the image she had created of him, but the smile he flashed her gave the woman another flurry of emotions matching the sensory overload she felt just moments earlier, and she felt it quite exhilarating. Of course, he didn’t want her shy, safe kid to develop an ego, so she only offered a few excited snickers to offer as she hopped through the portal, the young man bringing up the rear. As he sealed away the day-lit world behind them, Jackie found herself consumed by the fluorescent lights and cacophonous sounds of a hundred digital battlefields stretching in every direction.

“Okay!” Marco raised his voice so it wouldn’t get drown out. “All the games are divided by genre. Shooters are to your left, this is fighting games, and to the right is air hockey!”

Jackie gave a friendly scoff, grateful that the old, pedantic Marco was still alive and well to keep him grounded. “Air hockey sounds good right now!” Jackie perked up.

“Actually, it’s not what it sounds like” Marco regretfully sighed, pointing at the spectacle in the air.

Jackie followed her finger and saw a team of burly warriors, clad in either red or blue baggy jumpsuits, suspended in air by a series of jet streams blowing hot air from below. In their hands, they menacingly wielded arched sticks as they converged to a floating red disc in the center of the three-dimensional field, with one brutish combatant ramming his shoulder into the jaw of another, spawning their allies to drop all pretenses of sportsmanship and the game devolved into an all-out melee.

Jackie winced as a pair of molars showered down on her and muttered, “Tempting, but I didn’t come here to get cross checked. I think I’ll find us a nice one-on-one fighter for the both of us.”

Marco arched an eyebrow at the offer, sweetened by the girl’s inviting tone, “Is that a challenge?”

The young girl felt another smile spread across her face as the good natured, playful charisma returned to her friend. “Actually, it’s to make up for lost time. I mean, we barely got to spend time together last night, unless you count outrunning a bird of prey a bonding experience.”

Marco’s confident look wavered slightly at this admission. The girl of his dreams wanting to spend time with him was more than he could possibly imagine, and proof that his laid-out plans were a success, one that he better not squander. “Oh, well, you go find a game, and I’ll go get us some… whatever the equivalent of quarters are here.”

With a chuckle, the two teens went their separate ways. Marco wandered his way to a lesser populated section of the arcade, towards a less luminous appliance he took for a change machine, but also took the moment to congratulate himself. “Diaz, you are a smooth operator, if I don’t say so myself,” he took the rare opportunity to gloat, twirling the dimensional scissors around his index finger with a satisfied expression. “Jackie’s a special girl, but you know what she needs, and with these bad boys, you can finally provide for her.”

It was a lovely sentiment, but one that proved distracting. Hypnotized by the allure of the enchanted shears, Marco wrote off the sudden warm orange glow on his right hand side as a yet another mind-rotting arcade attraction. It wasn’t until he felt a vice clamp down on his right arm and forcefully drag him into the light source that he responded with an undignified gulp. The cool air and neon purple lights of the amethyst arcade soon gave way to an arid desert, dust colored wasteland as far as the eye could see in any direction and it was then when Marco finally got a look at his assailant. The alabaster white arm that clenched his attached to a creature bearing the semblance of a young woman only a few years older than Star (though with his previous experiences with monsters, he knew that was far from the case) with assertive orange eyes partially obscured by blood red bangs that then trailed down her back and past her waist. Marco was surprised that he could just see over the head of her somewhat stout figure, but with how strong the woman was, this seemed irrelevant. More pressing, another figure, possibly her twin, approached his opposite flank and seized his wrist in a similar fashion until his grip on the dimensional scissors laxed and she could claim them for herself. “Hey, wait!” the young man yelped, knowing she would not comply, but still fearing the implications of losing the tool after being dragged to an unfamiliar setting. 

A few feet in front of him, a burst of fire emerged from the ground before taking the form of yet another duplicate, who waited with an unpleased look for her associate to bring her Marco’s ill-gotten scissors. Upon receiving them, she scanned them momentarily before shooting the boy an accusatory look. “I’ve picked up heavy dimensional gate concentration on Earth from these scissors.” She began with an impartial tone before focusing her gaze on Marco. “Are you even registered to use them?”

“I… Uh… registered?” Marco began, none of his prior confidence to be found.

Taking his rambling as a no, the demon banished the scissors in her grasp with a plume of fire and glided towards the young man, yellow dress billowing in her wake. “The unauthorized use of dimensional scissors is a high felony under interdimensional law.” She scolded as she landed in front of the restrained young man, a scowl forming on her face as she leaned in close. “Do you realize just how much trouble you are?”

The word “trouble” blared in Marco’s mind on loop as he saw his carefully laid plans for the day fall apart and a potential punishment take his place. The uncertainty of the situation greatly impacted his ability to make a cohesive argument, but his stream of consciousness ran rampant, “Look, I didn’t mean to do anything illegal! I… I just wanted to show my friend a good time, so I thought I’d take her to Mewni for the day! I didn’t think it was a problem, and now she’s stuck there! Come on, can’t you just let it pass this one time? Can’t I pay a fine, or do community service, or something?”

Marco’s neuroticism came back in full force during his rant, pinpoint eyes darting back and forth, a free hand ruffling his hair, and sentences punctuated by stuttering and panting before devolving into full on hyperventilating. “DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THEY DO TO KIDS LIKE ME IN PRISON?!” 

Whether intended or not, the spectacle put a small smirk on the interdimensional creature’s face. Her position on the Magical High Commission had become increasingly demanding with the recent rolling magic shortages plaguing multiple worlds and it had been far too long since she had the opportunity to cut loose. Her current guest, though, seemed like he would provide a much needed distraction. “You know, now that you mention it, I do remember Queen Moon saying that her daughter had been taking residence on Earth…” she thought just loud enough to cut through the panicked boy’s mania.

“You have?” Marco responded breathlessly, ignoring another invasive hand plunging into his pocket.

With his wallet in hand, and somehow forced open despite multiple encryptions, the clone located a laminated high school ID card and mechanically read it aloud. “Marco Diaz; Echo Creek, CA; Earth.”

“Hmm, checks out.” The demon scoffed, her casual smile deepening, “Seeing as how you’ve been keeping an eye on the crown princess of Mewni, I guess I can let you off the hook this one time…”

Marco mentally let out a sigh in relief, but something about his captor’s demeanor didn’t sit well with him. His defenses lowered slightly as the clone on his arm faded with a bright burst of fire and let him free to cautiously approach the woman in front of him before she could make any final judgment. “Well, thanks. Thank you so much!” He rushed through his gratitude, eying the pair of dimensional scissors hanging off her fingers. “Now, look, I left my friend back in the Amethyst Arcade, so if you could just let me back…”

Catching the young man’s wandering eyes, the woman leaned back until her feet cut ties with the ground and soon hovered well over Marco’s height in the air, arms stretched out far above her to maximize distance between the boy and his prize. “Nu-uh-uh…” she chuckled in a taunting tone, the smile on her face taking on a more mischievous slant. “I only meant that I wouldn’t report you to the Magical High Commission. I’m not just going to give you back these scissors.”

Marco’s panic settled back in to retort to the levitating demon. “What? But… but… how am I supposed to get out of here?”

Giggling at the squeaks in his voice, she explained, “Look, I don’t think we were properly introduced. My name is Heckapoo, and the Commission tasks me with regulating travel between dimensions. Part of that job requires making sure that only people who know what they’re doing are allowed to wield interdimensional scissors. To do that, I have them go through a little test.”

“Test?” Marco’s tone relaxed with the rest of his body for a moment. “OK, fine. Where do we take it? Will I have time to study for it? Scantrons or essay?”

Heckapoo brought her wrist to her mouth to stifle a chuckle as she drifted back down to Earth, the boy’s aloofness proving he was no threat to her. “It’s more of a physical.” She led on with another taunt. “All you have to do is catch me…”

With a snap of her fingers, a small, free-standing ember appeared above the demon’s head, separated from her scarlet locks by a small black crest over her head before she continued, “and blow out the flame above my head. Easy enough.”

Marco tried to ignore the sarcastic smile that accompanied that last line. It may not have been his preferred form of testing, but the young man felt that he had enough experience on the battlefield to perform such a simple task of reflexes, and sought to inform his captor of that. More importantly, he knew that Jackie was still waiting for him at the arcade and, he feared, was growing more and more anxious by the minute, making him all the more eager to accomplish this task. Hoping to catch her off guard in her hubris, he immediately rushed for Heckapoo as she stood a few feet away and leapt into the air with a mighty cry before leaning forward lips first. Before he could pucker, though, the self-satisfied visage of the woman went blurry to the young man. Marco was about to attribute this phenomenon to a sun glare until the widening white and orange smudge in his eyes became solid again, but this time three copies of the demon stood in its place. Still airborne and too befuddled by this trick to course correct, he collided with the triplet in the center, who was just as solid as one would expect a mirage to be and once the image collapsed into a puff of smoke, Marco found himself laying flat on the ground with a mouth full of sand. “Oh, one little thing…” Heckapoo added as the boy got back onto his knees and brushed the dust off his black jeans.

“Only the original counts…” the other duplicate continued, only to punctuate the sentence by creating her own copy.

“You’ll have to find which of us is the real one…” the newly formed demon chimed in before herself dividing.

Frustration setting in, Marco rose back to his feet and promptly swung his leg in a high arc, inspired by old kung-fu movies where a grandmaster could use the wake of a kick or punch to move air and extinguish a ring of candles. In a much needed boost to his ego, it worked, and the quartet of Heckapoos quickly faded from being as his leg passed over their heads. “Hmm, that might have been impressive if that was the right one.

Marco had a word or two planned for the unimpressed woman, but when he turned around to present them, he found himself at a loss of words. On his opposite side, where once stood nothing but an expanse of desert, where an unprepared adventure could wander blindly to his grave, now stood a crowd of Heckapoos as far as his bewildered eyes could see, each one bearing a minor variation of the same condescending look, each taking equal pleasure in toying with him. “Quick question, macho man.” One asked, but Marco couldn’t even begin to try to identify it. “Which one’s the real me?”

Honestly, Marco wasn’t even sure if the same one finished that question, and he certainly wanted to believe that it was only his eyes playing tricks on him and that they weren’t continuing to replicated in the far distance. Before he could even recover, though, Marco noticed the small army of yellow dresses before him grow thinner as its members took to the air before zipping off in whichever direction they chose. Heart dropping even further in his chest, the young man called out to them, “Wait! You’re leaving?”

“Well yeah,” One of the copies took time to turn to the young man before zipping off into the horizon. “Did you expect us to just stick around and wait in line?”

“But… what if I can’t find you? Does that mean I’m just stuck here?” Marco immediately recognized how childish he sounded and immediately regretted it.

Only one of Heckapoo’s duplicates remained to answer his question, turning to him with an unsympathetic glint in her eyes, “Maybe you’re just not cut out for this. Not a lot of people are.”

With that, she turned her back to join the ever widening ring of airborne demons dotting the arid desert sky, fading in sight even faster than Marco’s hopes of being able to finish this challenge. But still, the young man tried to keep his spirits up; maybe it was because he knew Jackie was still waiting for him at the arcade, or maybe he knew Star would never forgive him for taking her dimensional scissors without asking and then losing them. Still, maybe it was what that last Heckapoo said, which all of them seemed to imply in one way or another: that Marco Diaz didn’t belong in this dimension, that he wouldn’t survive this challenge. He’d immediately retort that he was quite accomplished for his age, having defeated several enemies.

Albeit, with Star leading the charge.

Marco quickly backtracked from that train of thought and focused on the mission at hand. ‘Come on, Marco, you just have to find the real Heckapoo, and then you get your scissors.’ He attempted to reassure himself. ‘How long could that take?’

 

The sweltering desert of the lost realm lay barren, though this wasn’t out of the ordinary. It had been one of the first discoveries in the age of the dimensional scissors, but with its lack of resources, unforgiving environment and inhospitable residents, very few creatures were willing to settle in the region, save those who were hearty enough to think they could brave the harsh frontier. With this reputation, the world soon became something of a sink hole for the most ruthless criminals, dangerous artifacts and fearsome creatures the multiverse had to offer which in turn led the original settlers to treat the realm as a game of sorts; if one could prove their mettle in this wretched hive of scum and villainy, they could survive anywhere, thus the concept of the Scissor Quest was born. It was a two-fold success story for the branch of the Magical High Commission, it helped keep the number of people with access to dimensional travel to a minimum and it invited a healthy stock of adventurers to help tame the ravenous countryside and keep it from de-evolving into a melting pot of chaos. But for Heckapoo, all that mattered was that it allowed her to cut loose every once in a while.

Standing alongside a heavily traveled dirt road, the woman’s lazy eyes swayed back and forth to each end where it seemingly stretched on forever, waiting for her guest of honor to arrive. Sure enough, the roar of a fuel injected dragon cycle sounded in the distance, a rapidly growing speck on the horizon accompanying it. “Here we go again…” She joyously whispered to herself before taking flight.

The sparse vegetation rushed past her and the mountain ranges in the distance oscillated as Heckapoo soared through the sky, momentarily looking back at her pursuer with a smirk. At this point, she could hear the snarling of the wheel-mounted beast as it scaled the small hill behind her, and see the determined glint in its master’s eyes. While their introduction was tumultuous to say the least, taking her latest challenger to task had been the highlight of her day for the last few years. He’d arrive on the scene with a heroic flourish, regaling her with the tale of his latest success, and she’d humor him for a few minutes with a brief skirmish before revealing herself to be yet another duplicate, and then the chase began anew. Granted, he did not walk away from these encounters empty handed, as the numerous encounters defined and chiseled his soft, boyish physique into the very image of a man, tall and broad-chested. It was hard to ignore given his wardrobe, his old red hoodie long ago discarded for a distressed leather jacket cut down the middle to proudly display his defined abdomens and the loss of sleeves to a slash from dimensional scissors only drew attention to his powerful arms. Likewise, a decade and a half of weekly encounters had exhausted her supply of clones so after all this time, she would have to face the young man on her own. He made the first move, heaving with his muscular arm a sharpened spear acquired from the crystal warrior women of Shu-Garr aimed squarely for the small of her back, which she avoided with a barrel roll. “Heh, missed,” she taunted, knowing in the back of her head that he wasn’t out of tricks.

Sure enough, Marco, champion of the lost realm, unsheathed a sword won from the mist valley and, with one stiff arm controlling the handlebar, swung it through the air. The dark energy coursing through the forbidden sword soared through the air in a crescent assault, which Heckapoo deftly dodged as well. Never one to give up, Marco followed up with a few more slashes, a volley that Heckapoo maneuvered around with all manner of flips and corkscrews. One managed to just barely graze the flame above the demon’s crest, which didn’t go unnoticed by the hardened challenger, “If you want to call it quits right now, I won’t hold it against you!”

With a scowl, Heckapoo re-oriented herself mid-air after a series of twirls and rocketed herself out of the rider’s orbit, or so she thought. “Still playing hard to get after all this time…” Marco sighed almost listfully, “Nacho! Let’s fly!”

With a brief kick of his spurred heel, the bizarre mount spread out it wings and its wheel clutching paws left the Earth before soaring into the sky. Another blast of dark energy barely grazing her flank alerted Heckapoo to her enemy’s ascent, forcing her to renew her focus on evading. An extra dimension only gave Marco more of an upper hand in matching Heckapoo’s movements and now that his dragon was in its natural environment, she could sense the foul beast’s breathing draw even closer. Despite herself, she couldn’t help but crack a smile, having been denied a challenge for so long, but for that reason she wasn’t ready to let the game end quite yet and in a last ditch effort took a sharp dive, accelerating into the drop before Marco could react and letting the young man charge in front of her position. He made a u-turn in mid-air, leaning into the turn and gradually dipping down, but not fast enough to catch up with his target. “This has been fun and all Marco,” Heckapoo shot back while digging for a pair of dimensional scissors, “But I’ve got to get going. I’ll be seeing you!”

Breaking her arm away from her sides, she tore a hole through the space before her and dropped out of vision. Once the elusive demon’s foot passed through, the portal began to recede, causing a still lagging behind Marco to grit his teeth before shouting, “NACHO! NOW!”

On the other side, Heckapoo gently landed from her descent onto soft sand overlooking a picturesque ocean, then taking a moment to stretch her arms after the harder than anticipated encounter. “Hmm. You’re getting soft, Heckapoo.” She chided herself, twisting at the hip slightly to work out a kink she endured from an aerial flip. “One of these day’s that boy’s going to get the drop on…”

At the apex of her stretch, Heckapoo noticed out of the corner of her eye that the portal that afforded her escape remained open, an amateurish oversight that quickly sent a chill down the demon’s spine. She could have sworn she set the portal to mend itself when she passed, but didn’t have time to retrace her actions as the tan face of her adversary propelled out of the portal, cheeks puffed out and lips puckered, and straight over her head. The moment afterwards, her the demon’s head felt uncomfortably cool for comfort as her opponent gracefully landed in a barrel roll on her other side. “Thank you! No autographs, please!” His gravelly, self-assured voice rang out as he brought himself up, snapping the woman out of her trance.

Still, she couldn’t shake the dumbfounded look off her face as she approached her champion. “You…You… took control of my portals! But how?”

In the time she took to gather her wits, Marco’s loyal steed Nacho casually rolled through the still open portal and the wanderer sauntered over to his ride to reward him with a good natured stoking of the chin. In doing so, however, the creature coughed up a beam of orange light straight at their entrance, sealing the portal for good. “I taught Nacho a new trick.” Marco explained, continuing to stroke his closest ally. “We took a quick detour to the Forge of Sanchez, and after a quick upgrade, I made sure that you wouldn’t be able to pull your old disappearing trick again.”

Heckapoo was impressed by this revelation, but refused to show it. “YOU found the Forge of Sanchez? Where the Mewni Royal Family’s first dimensional scissors were forged?” She felt that disbelief was more appropriate. “That’s impossible! No mortal has ever been able to access it!”

Marco felt that the results more than spoke for themselves, and continued his victory lap. “Yeah, I figured I could have just gone home after that, but I didn’t want to leave any unfinished business with you.”

A bit of melancholy crept into the man’s voice with that last statement and Heckapoo quickly picked up on it. It quickly spread to the rest of his face as the young man’s face, covered in dust and stubble, turned sullen, “After all, it’s not like I have anything to go back to.”

The high of his victory finally wearing off, the adventurer could finally turn his attention to his surroundings. He and Heckapoo stood upon an imposing pile of rocks that stood atop the ocean as its waves crashed futilely against its base. Millenia of this cycle had eroded the stone into a smooth ebony canvas upon which the wetness refracted the light from the setting sun into a faint, relaxing spectrum that almost calmed the young man’s mind. “So, these are the fabled Cliffs of Ydenshar?” he sighed listlessly, finally able to let his body relax. “I’ve heard tales of how beautiful they were…”

How long had he spent chasing Heckapoo? Sixteen years the last time he bothered to check time at the last outpost he had checked in at, but it barely mattered to him. He figured that after just a few hours Jackie declared Marco a no show and gave up on him, and hopefully she was able to find a way back to Earth after explaining her case, and probably didn’t care when he didn’t show up for school on Monday after the inconvenience he put her through. Likewise, when Star never bothered to come to his aide after a day or two, he figured that she had given up on him as well, perhaps bitter at him for stealing from her after all they had been through. Of course, his parents probably gave up hope on finding their baby boy around the time he turned 17, and even if he did come back, would they even recognize him? He had reclaimed his dimensional scissors that could take him anywhere in the world, but not back to the Amethyst Arcade all those years ago.

“Oh, Jackie, you’re probably married with kids by now, you’ve probably forgotten all about me. Fair enough. You deserve better than an old fool like me…”

“Oh, brother.” Heckapoo could only roll her eyes at the melodrama before her. “Contest over!”

A snap from Heckapoo’s fingers tore through the air and Marco felt a jolt rock his entire frame. He quickly recovered, but something seemed off, as though his perspective of the brilliant vista before him had dropped a foot and some inches. “Wait, what?” called out a voice he hadn’t heard in ages.

Bringing a hand to his head to combat the vertigo, he saw nothing of the calloused, warrior’s fingers that pulled his sword from the valley of mist or tamed the feral beast of Xelahirsch, but the smooth digits of his youth. “I’m… I’m a kid again!” the teenager called out in a mix of relief and confusion. “But how?”

Heckapoo approached the young man from his side. “Time flows faster in this dimension than it does in the rest of the multiverse. That’s part of what makes it ideal for conducting survival tests.”

A sense of relief washed over Marco as his hands continued to pass over his once again nubile face. “Time flow… How long has passed in Mewni?” He asked with renewed determination.

Finger to her chin, Heckapoo ran some quick calculations, “Let’s see, 16 years would translate to… the better part of 11 minutes.”

In her opposite hand, a small fireball materialized briefly before collapsing into a shape that was all too familiar to the young man, his long sought after dimensional scissors, only now with a bronzed handle and the faint etchings of “MARCO” along the length of the blade. “As the head of the Department of Interdimensional Affairs, I hereby present you, Marco Diaz of Earth, with your own pair of Dimensional Scissors, and with them the freedom to move across the multiverse as you please.” Heckapoo recited with an air of dignity, before revealing a second, less ornate pair from the back of her dress. “Also, promise me you’ll get these back to your friend.”

“No problemo!” Marco beamed while seizing his prize, and then dashed off to rejoin his trusted ally.

Sadly, the demon extended a thick white arm to sour the reunion. “Yeah, sorry, those who take part in the Scissor Quest aren’t allowed to take anything from the dimension home from them.”

“But… Nacho.” The young man’s eyes shimmered as he gazed to his steed, and the beast returned the sentiment silently.

Heckapoo for once gave a sympathetic smile and her hand found a new home on Marco’s shoulder, “Hey, I’ll give him a good home.”

Marco smiled warmly, though the woman soon got back to business, “I’m also gonna need that sword back…”

Marco reckoned that the arcade probably wouldn’t have tolerated eldritch weaponry and complied. After finally receiving his dimensional scissors, he opened a portal to return to his date in progress, hoping that Jackie would not have been too disappointed. He emerged, appropriately enough, by the very change machine where Heckapoo first seized him all those years ago, or minutes base on your perspective, and quickly took off down the numerous aisles of arcade cabinets. “Jackie! Jackie!” He called out intermittently.

With his head swaying back and forth to get a sight of the platinum blonde, Marco eventually caught sight of a familiar image. Nestled against the side wall of the arcade, away from the audio and visual stimuli, was a photo booth common to the teen hang-outs in Mewni, and on its side panel was mounted a full length mirror for patrons to spruce themselves up before taking their novelty photos. It was here where Marco’s eyes locked into place, and a wave of embarrassment set in. While Heckapoo restored his youth, his original clothes were still lost to the outskirts of the lost realm and he currently stood in a smaller version of his weather worn jacket and leather riding pants. In his numerous adventures on the open road, the sparse clothing was a blessing under the harsh sun and the strategic tearing highlighted his heroic figure. However, on his fourteen year old body, the heavy leather vest weighed heavily on his feeble shoulders, threatening to slide off despite being obviously smaller. Also, between the open flaps of leather, his pigeon chest sat partially inflated and below rested a small reservoir of puppy fat from his diet of nachos and pizza rolls. 

The name and image he had carved out for himself in Heckapoo’s realm had been easily erased in an instant and held as much weight in the real world as the high scores on the arcade cabinets around him. In fact, since returning, Marco’s recollection of his adventures started to grow hazy, perhaps a side effect of returning to his 14-year-old physiology and having a sixteen years of adventures compressed into a couple of minutes. The countless dungeon raids, rescued caravans and battles with Heckapoo blurred until they felt like fanciful daydreams, and those he could remember clearly were the ones at the early stages of his journey: struggling to find shelter for his first night; nearly falling to his death trying to scale a mountain to get a better few of the scenery and only surviving by landing on the back of a griffin that just happened to be flying by; getting into his first real skirmish with a band of goblins who he foolishly asked had seen a flying demon lady, and having to retreat due to the lack of a young woman providing covering narwhals. Those seemed more fitting for the boy who stood in front of him, dressed in the garbs of a hero that barely fit on his flabby, untrained body.

Of course, he persevered. It may have taken longer than he wanted to, but he proved himself and won his scissors. Jackie, though, didn’t deserve to have to entertain him for 16 years for him to better himself. Finally, Marco managed to pull himself away from the sad sight and resumed his search. He only had to turn the corner to find a number of teens crowded around a young resident of the underworld in the middle of a record-breaking run on “Castle Defender II”, and Jackie’s casual attire stood out amongst all the outlandish outfits.

“Hey, Jackie! Sorry, I was gone for so long.” Marco raised his voice to get her attention over the whoops and hollers of the audience.

“Oh, Marco, I was wondering where you…” the girl chirped, before being taken aback by his new appearance. “Whoa, did I miss the apocalypse or something?”

Marco noted Jackie’s bewildered eyes scanning up and down his flaccid torso with a defeated look. Still, he knew how undignified he looked and stuck to his plan. “No, it’s just… Look, Jackie, I need to tell you something I’ve been meaning to tell you ever since the Bon Bon thing. I… have a crush on you. I’ve had one ever since we were in kindergarten together, and… I just thought you should know.”

And there it was. After who knows how many years of furtive glances, restless nights and harebrained attempts to win her affection, the young man was finally able to put it out in the open. What should have been a moment of relief, though, was punctuated with more pessimism when Marco noted a small smile curl Jackie’s lips, ‘Took him long enough,’ the young woman thought to herself.

“Yeah, I know, you told me you had a crush on me, like, twice now. And you weren’t exactly the master of subtlety you thought you were.” Jackie responded with a wry smile.

However, her attempt at levity had no effect on Marco’s demeanor. His sullen eyes dejectedly admitted that he had taken too long to take his shot and his bare chest swelled slightly with a knowing sigh before he continued. “I know, I know. It’s just that I really wanted to impress you today, and I thought I could use the dimensional scissors to show you something amazing, like how you wanted to see Star do something awesome last night. So, I… took hers without asking, and I just spent 16 years in a fantasy world fighting to get them back, because I tried to be somebody I’m not.”

Needless to say, this confession left Jackie a bit confused, though with what last night, she believed it. What mattered more to the girl at the moment was the boy’s tone, which had none of the charisma he had laid on so thick just minutes ago, and in its place laid a young man defeated and emotionally drained. If he had been gone for 16 years, then she didn’t want to know how much of a toll it had on him. 

With Jackie silently processing his words, Marco continued, “Anyway, look, I know that after the fight with Ludo you think I’m this super cool warrior guy, and part of me wanted to believe that too, but after what happened today, I realize that I’m not nearly as cool as Star is. I’m cool by proxy at best. So that’s what I have to offer, me, the safe kid.”

While she knew it wasn’t the boy’s intention, Jackie felt a bit put on the spot at the moment. Biting her lip as she took in everything he said, she gave the best response she could, “Look, I’m… flattered that you went through all this trouble to impress me, and I think you’re a good person deep down. Still… this is a lot to take in at once. Just… give me a bit to think this over.”

She knew it was a cop-out, but it worked for the moment. Marco seemed to have consigned to the idea that she wouldn’t return her affections and his face tightened back up slightly. “Anyway, this place is a lot more crowded than I expected,” Jackie gestured to the large crowd of spectators behind her, “So, I think we should just call it a day. I have a bunch of homework I put off from last night.”

Marco saw through her excuse, but didn’t mind. He didn’t expect that he would be able to move from a heartfelt confession dripping in self-pity to asking Jackie if she was up for some ski-ball. “Yeah, come on, let’s go.” He pulled out his pair of dimensional scissors and opened a rift back to Jackie’s front yard, letting her pass first before darting out and back towards home.

For the first time in 16 years, Marco Diaz crossed the threshold of his house and took a moment to take in the sights. “Anybody home? Mom? Dad?”

His hero’s welcome would have to be delayed until they got back from Saturday afternoon errands, it seemed. No matter. With the downstairs empty, Marco craftily reached into the tight back pocket of his leather pants and withdrew Star’s dimensional scissors, placing them back on the counter. ‘Like it never happened,’ he told himself.

The moment he laid them down, a mournful moaning sounded from the stairs and, senses heightened, he turned to see Star slowly plodding her way down. Even with her mouth hanging open and eyes glazed over, the young woman was a sight for Marco’s sore, weary eyes and he humored her theatrics, “So, how was your day?”

Reaching the bottom, Star wrapped an arm around the first column of the bannister, “Ugh, I spent all morning studying magic with Glossaryck,” she groaned, losing the strength to support her light weight and sliding down the pole, “So. Much. Learning…”

In spite of herself, the young woman suddenly remembered the night before and immediately perked up to ask, “Wait, shouldn’t you be on your date with Jackie?”

Knowing this was inevitable, Marco took a deep breath and responded, “I… just got back. I told her I loved her, and… she said she’d get back to me…”

“Oh…” Star hissed empathetically. As a teenage girl with a few bad relationships under her belt, she knew that this was never a good sign. “Well, heh, if that’s what you wore, I’m not surprised she…”

Star immediately regretted her attempt to alleviate the situation with humor when she saw the young man manage to slump down even further. In her defense, news of Marco’s failed declaration of love filled her with swirling emotions, and she had little to control her inhibitions. “What… oh, no, this old thing,” Marco thankfully didn’t take it too personally, merely marching off to the staircase with a thousand yard stare, “Yeah, it’s a long story.”

Eager to put a smile on the dour young man’s face, Star bounced up attempted to cut the young man off. “Do you want me to get out the unicycle?” She asked him with a warm smile, but only received another deep breath in response.

“Look, Star,” Marco sighed, not even making eye contact, “Today’s been a bit rough. So, I really just want to be alone for a while.

He had made his case clear, but the young woman still couldn’t take Marco’s depressed look for an answer and proposed, “You know, your mom and dad said they wouldn’t be home until later this evening, so maybe we can have another movie night? Maybe order some Mewni pizza and binge-watch some of those old kung-fu movies where the people’s lips don’t match what they’re saying?”

Still not budging emotionally, Marco shut down the conversation the best way he could before retiring to his room, “Maybe later.”  
With a slamming of the door, Marco was finally alone in his room where he promptly plopped down on his bed. Away from his well-meaning friend, he could finally focus on his own thoughts, no matter how unpleasant they may be. Even though the day had not gone as he planned, it may not have mattered in the long run. ‘You said it yourself, Diaz.’ He berated himself, ‘Jackie is a special girl. She deserves the best, and you aren’t even the “passable”.’

“You used to be a champion, but now look at you…”

“A pathetic, worthless child…”

Marco grit his teeth as the thought crept into his head.

“Looks like we have a lot of work to do…”

Eventually, the voices stopped, but they made their point. Marco dropped to the floor and, hands behind his head, brought his chest up to his knees. He might not be a great adventurer, and he may have forfeited the love of his life in a bout of self-pity, but at least he could do something about his muffin top.

“One…”

***

Jackie’s early return home did not go unnoticed by her mother, propped up in a recliner with the latest issue of “Voyeur” magazine. “Back so soon?” she asked from her seat.

Stopping in her tracks, the girl gave a brief explanation, “Yeah, well, we decided to call it quits early. Things… came up.”

What Ms. Lynn did fail to see was the sober expression on her daughter as she weightlessly drifted on her way back to her room, thus she pressed the conversation further. “What happened? Were there any problems? Did he…”

Jackie saw where these questions were heading, and while Marco’s sudden downturn disappointed her, she still had a high opinion of him. Turning to face the woman for a proper conversation, she wouldn’t take it otherwise, she explained. “Mom, it’s not that. Marco didn’t do anything wrong. We just, realized we had other stuff going on.”

“Oh, well that’s good to hear…” Jackie’s mother’s tone went from curious to self-satisfied and that should have been all. 

However, Jackie immediately recognized the patronizing tone she had taken and feared what would come next. “Marco seemed so sweet. I’m so glad that you were able to find such a nice boy.”

Jackie forced a smile for as long as she could to break off the conversation before resuming her trek to her room, where she could then file her retort in silence. “I don’t have a problem with boys, mom. That’s the whole point…”

Knowing that was a conversation for an entirely different day, Jackie retired to her room and gave the door just a hard enough push for it to shut behind her with a loud slam. She lethargically dragged her feet to her bed and upon reaching it, any energy that kept her body upright drained from her as she leaned forward and fell face first into the soft comforter of her bed. A defeated sigh gurgled in her throat as her response to Marco’s confession played out in her head and she questioned what she was thinking even more. On account of having eyes and a basic understanding of social cues, Jackie gleaned that Marco had a crush on her even before his forced confession and had that much time to decide whether she liked him back in addition to having known him for most of her life as he had her. She knew from sharing classes with him that the boy was intelligent, level-headed and courteous to those around him, all good traits that would translate well to a boyfriend. Granted, these traits rarely had time to shine with the boy’s chronic shyness and neuroticisms, which were the stuff of legends amongst the higher tiers of the Echo Creek student body and while Jackie was against their bullying, she would be lying if she denied that she never paid him much mind, feeling his crush was merely the result of a cocktail of hormones and these aforementioned insecurities that he’d outgrow once he finally learned to control them.

Of course, over the past few days, she had been force to re-examine her entire portrait of the young man, as no reasonable person could describe a boy who fights zombies with his bare hands or had traveled the multiverse a wall flower. No one except Marco, apparently. Jackie turned onto her back and let out a sigh in frustration as she recalled how quickly the boy fell from grace this afternoon. He had honed his skills in combat alongside his magical princess friend, culminating in a grand final battle the previous night, and he had bared his soul more to her in just a few weeks than in the previous 10 years she knew him. In that time, his pursuit of the young woman only became more focused, and she realized she was less a passing crush and more of a light at the end of the tunnel that Marco strived for, that he used as a motivation to become a better person. She knew deep down it was a silly stunt to impress her, but when Marco wielded the dimensional scissors for their date today, he felt like a completely different person from the meek teenager she had known from here say. He was no longer a slave to his anxiety, but someone who felt comfortable in his own skin and someone who she wouldn’t mind getting to know better, especially with the knowledge that it was all done for her. 

But sadly, it wasn’t meant to last. After his bizarre diatribe, he had convinced himself that he was merely feeding off the residual energy of his best friend, Star Butterfly. As far as he was concerned, she was the real hero, and he was nothing more than the bumbling sidekick, worth nothing more than a passing glance. The more Jackie thought about it, the more she realized that their mutual friend was the last piece of the puzzle she needed to answer Marco’s question. But she wasn’t sure how to get it. 

After all, how do you ask someone if he’s in love with his best friend?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you enjoyed this current chapter. Again, to apologize for the long wait and show that I have a story planned out, I thought that I could borrow a page from modern cartoon show runners and post the names of all the chapters I have planned out for this story (don't worry, this is only the first in an entire series of multi-part stories for this ship/continuity)
> 
> "Faulty Tower"  
> "Girl Talk"  
> "Playing Possum"  
> "Booking It"  
> "Hostile Makeover"  
> "Star and Pony Show"  
> "Smooth Sailing"  
> "Love Sentence"  
> "SPOILER-REDACTED"


	5. Faulty Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Magical High Commission stumble upon Ludo's plan to interfere with Mewni's magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's that, you ask? An update to this chapter that isn't a 9,000 word eye sore? Well, as I've been talking about these last few chapters, I've been trying to cut back on how wordy and how out of control my prose and self-inflection bits are. However, it's also because we won't be seeing any of the main three in this chapter, as it focuses more on my take on this season's Toffee-Ludo arc and the Magical High Commission. Because of that, I don't have to spend every other paragraph deconstructing a character's actions, and I also admit this chapter is more humor driven, to make up for the melodrama we got last time.
> 
> Speaking of which, I'm taking a few liberties with Toffee!Ludo's plan in terms of what he was doing in the cave, how Toffee was corrupting the magic, etc. so I hope it isn't too jarring (I know I had a few continuity hiccups regarding "Running with Scissors" last chapter). Still, I'd prefer to take this plot in a way that is more streamlined, since it isn't main focus of the story. Anyway, read, give kudos and comment, as always!
> 
> Disclaimer: "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" and related characters belong to Daron Nefcy and Disney.
> 
> Warning: This story will feature a polyamorous relationship between underage characters, if this offends you, I apologize.

Ludo opened his eyes after a long night’s rest to take in his surroundings. Space. The dark void that fills the dimension between the multiverses where no one would willingly set foot in. Of course, in Ludo’s case, he didn’t have a say in the matter when Star banished him without a second though, and despite himself, he couldn’t build up the energy to stay mad at the young girl. Drifting aloft in the empty expanse, no solid ground beneath his feet, the air neither warm nor cold, helped sooth the sting of his most recent defeat, and he welcomed the numbing feeling to a disturbing degree. He could have returned to his lair to plan his next attack, or he could drift the currents of oblivion for all eternity where there were no meddling children to attack him, no lizard men to usurp him. Sensory deprivation had left his brain comfortably numb, and he had no obligations but to enjoy the quaint scenery. Currently, a bright star in the distance had taken his fancy, and he gazed at the bright light contrasting with his dark surroundings with the glee of a newborn child. So enamored was he that he didn’t register that the bright blur accelerated towards him at a rapid pace, or how as it grew, the blinding white light developed orange and white straits on the bottom and top. “Wait, wuh… Is that?” Ludo babbled incoherently.

Soon, the starburst grew more defined and he could make out the details of a determined face glaring at him with orange eyes and fangs peeking out from under its lips, and an arm the reached out to snake around his neck when she finally closed in. With a gasp, Ludo heard the sound of dimensional scissors cutting through the void and the imposing dark purple void jarringly transition to the rustic colors of an all too familiar cave. “Found him!” his captor announced after dropping him to the ground carelessly.

Before Ludo could give her a piece of his mind, he felt a morbid chill overtake the bottom half of his body. Looking down, he saw that a flourish of crystals had taken residence over his legs. Immobilized, he could only turn his head to take in his company, which included a hulking figure with snakes for arms and a single diamond protrusion for a head, a Mewman with the head of a goat, a pink orb with a menacing skull inside, and most disconcerting, the ruling matriarch of Mewni herself. Gone was her impractical dress of the a nation’s figurehead, but a much sleeker set of armor that still contained distinguished embroidery, complemented with a scabbard dangling from her hip. Judging by the glare in eyes, she might have considered using it. “Ludo Avarius,” she addressed him in a voice colder than the night air wafting down from the mouth of the cave. “You stand accused of conspiring against the people of Mewni.”

Ludo attempted to defend his character but only a series of confused babbles came up, his mind weakened from days of isolation and needing a few more moments to register his surroundings. With a few more stutters, he managed to get his head back on straight and gave his retort with a weak smile, “Well…heh, heh, you are going to have to be a little more specific.”

Luckily, Moon was willing to humor the diminutive villain and gestured towards her compatriots before continuing down the main hall of the tunnel. A sea foam green serpent wrapped around Ludo’s waist and with a quick tug snapped his crystallized base from the ground before pressing him close to the chest of his captor, and they both followed suite. Ludo and his warden were the last to reach the main chamber of the cave where the rest of the Magical High Commission stopped to gaze in wonder, but the smaller creature tried to hide any reaction to the sight before them, until of course the creature holding him dropped him with a thud while he too was taken with awe. The sheer size of the dark metal obelisk that took up the entirety of the hollowed mountain would have been impressive enough, but it was the intricacies running down its shaft that merited the most attention. Not far above the base, low enough for an upright rat to reach, rested a downward angled chute where a cob of corn where it would coast down before being crushed by a steel gear. The teeth of the metal wheel meshed with those of increasingly larger cogs mounted on the face of the tower which worked their way up to an array of concentric rings standing atop a thin spindle at the apex of the structure. While no one present had precise enough eyesight to notice, said rings had a series of ancient Mewnese runes etched along their surface. So massive and foreign was the sight, that they did not notice the arrival of a small blue imp. “Sorry I’m late! Star’s finally started to take her studying seriously and I had to draft a…” Glossaryck’s apology trailed off into nothingness as he realized no one was listening to him and he sought what was so distracting. “Oh, hey! I haven’t seen one of these in eons!”

“Eh, you know what this thing is?” Ludo asked incredulously.

Glossaryck hovered over to a small pedestal resting behind the conveyer belts at the base of the structure and right below an imposing steel scepter that jutted from the main shaft of the tower. “Oh, yeah. The ancient Mewmans used these to create magical weaponry. See, they’d use water, or corn or wheat to turn the turbines, which would spin those rings up there and draw energy from the Magical Dimension. Granted, I’ve never seen one built on this scale…”

“Well, that would explain things.” Queen Moon was thankful for the explanation, but felt the need to reclaim the conversation. “Over the last few months, there have been reports of magical shortages throughout the kingdom. Earlier today, we found a hole in the force field of the royal cornfields where rats had been getting in, and our soldiers followed them here, where we found the tower and these schematics.”

Gesturing to her right, Heckapoo brandished a beat looking leather journal in question, though Ludo was not impressed. “And you really think that I’m responsible for all of this?” He snarled, squirming to no avail in his prison. “I know my rights! You can’t just hurl accusations like that! Where is you proof?”

Wordlessly, the demon woman flexed open the front cover of the journal and highlighted a small patch on the opposite side. Ludo hesitantly gazed upon the adhesive patch that read ‘From the library of’ and then ‘LUDO’ scrawled proudly in his near indecipherable scratch. “Oh... um, I guess that holds up.” Ludo gave a defeated chuckle; true, it seemed foolish to allow his plans to be so easily traceable back to him, but when one grew up with as many siblings as he did, you developed the need to lay claim to what was yours.

With what passed for a confession, Moon resumed her role of inquisitor. “Arcane technology like this has been thought to be lost to the ages. So the question I have is just how did you come across it?”

It was a legitimate question, if not a little low for the respected ruler. Ludo had never registered as a high threat to the kingdom, given his loosely ran so-called army of affable monsters and pitiable track record against Mewni’s teen princess. Star’s recent string of victories while on Earth only further took away from his menace, thus she was dubious when the small creature’s name was found in the notebook. Now especially, Ludo was at his least threatening, shying away from Moon like a scolded child before answering through clenched teeth. “It was the wand…”

“Come again?” Moon asked with a touch of sincerity.

“It was the wand! It spoke to me!” Ludo shouted until he strained the muscles in his neck, holding no regard for her position or how his words resembled the ramblings of a madman. “The wand from the ruins of my old castle after that traitor Toffee blew it up! It told me that if I wanted absolute power to overtake the kingdom, all I had to do was build a machine that would drain the very essence of magic at its source. I’d have flashes of brilliance in the middle of the night, and I’d jot them down in that book so I wouldn’t forget them.”

Heckapoo idly leafed through the following pages of the journal and, sure enough, the intricate blueprints and calculations scrawled in the margins far surpassed anything they would expect from the runt of a monster who put a skull on his head and called himself king. Staring over her shoulder, Moon too found herself putting more faith into Ludo’s words than they deserved.

Ludo continued his rant. “I started out with the milling device as the power source, and then when I learned of the hole in the cornfield’s magical barrier, I had my rats steal the corn to produce black market corn meal to raise funds for building materials. Then, I put the wand on that pedestal and ran the corn through the mill and it worked! The discs at the top spun all *Whir*Whir*Whir* and it tore open a whole and magic started to channel into the barrel of the tower. Apparently the wand itself acted as some sort of conduit to complete the circuit. Fat lot of good it did for me, though.”

Recognizing that Ludo was finished from his sudden sour tone, Queen Moon him her attention once more. She still was not sure how much of his story was valid, she’d need to make a trip back to the archives later this week, but she did not want to take any chances or let him find out that she had what he sought. “Very well. That will be all. Until we get these affairs straightened out, I hereby sentence you to crystallization! Rhombulus!”

The very word sent a jolt down Ludo’s back, amplified by the energy building in his jailor’s hands. “Wait! Um, don’t I at least get a plea bargain?”

This plea went unanswered as the blast was unleashed and the crystals around his waist climbed up the rest of his body, immortalizing his panicked expression. With their prisoner contained, Rhombulus crossed his arms in self-satisfaction, “Well, that was easy. So, now we just use the machine to send the magic back to the dimension it came from, right?”

“Yes, yes, that’s exactly what we do,” Glossaryck answered flatly while hovering back to the group. “We just need to hit the reverse switch at the base of the structure and that’s that.”

“OK, cool. Come on, Lekmet, let’s get this over with!” the diamond headed creature announced amiably as his goat-headed companion followed (much to the relief of Heckapoo, who had spent the last few minutes shooing the creature away from trying to grab a bite of Ludo’s notebook).

After a short stroll, Rhombulus approached the machine and began strafing along its edges, the single eye on his diamond squinting for any small details he may have overlooked. “Hmm, not finding it, do you see anything, buddy!” he called out.

“BAH!!!” Lekmet answered with a frustrated bleat.

“Yeah, well, maybe it’s one of those…” Before Rhombulus could finish his thought, his body shot erect with a sudden realization, which then turned to face his regretted acquaintance. “Hey, wait a minute, you were being sarcastic weren’t you?”

“Well, what do you know, he can be taught.” Glossaryck chided to the rest of the commission, none of whom dignified his ruse with a response.

He did however get the desired rise out of Rhombulus, who charged at the imp despite Lekmet’s repeated tugs on his cape. “That’s it little man! We’re finishing what we started last time!” He shouted, putting up his serpentine dukes.

“Guys! Cool it!” Heckapoo barked, positioning her short frame between the two with her arms spread.

This sudden obstacle bought Lekmet enough time to approach his partner and bring him out of his rage with a stroking of the shoulder. With Rhombulus relaxed and moving out of his way, Glossaryck had had his fun and now felt it was time to give an honest answer. “Magic flows into this dimension because that is the nature of the universe: high concentration flows to low concentration.” The blue imp laid out, the rest of the commission following him for the most part. “Getting the excess magic out of this… tankard… Ludo constructed will be difficult. There’s so much magic inside that simply breaking it open would be catastrophic, and mortals have never developed a machine to transport magic the other way. We’d have to develop some sort of, magic pump, to forcibly reverse the flow of energy.”

“Turning the laws of the universe inside out.” Heckapoo scoffed before cocking a hip, “Sounds like a fun little project…”

Glossaryck felt the same way, though with his wisdom by virtue of being constructed of magic itself, it was more of an inconvenience than an insurmountable task. “Yes, it seems like we’re all going to have to clear our schedules for the next few months. If you excuse me, I’ll be in my book. Maybe one of the earlier queens of Mewni had some insight in the matter.”

And with that, Glossaryck turned inwards into himself until all that remained was a crumbled ball of yellow cloth that shrank into nothing. It wasn’t a rare sight, Glossaryck being the first to excuse himself from a meeting, that is, but this time Moon felt he made the right call. “Well, guess this meeting is dismissed. Everyone see what you kind find out on this matter, and we’ll compare notes at the next meeting.”

“Well, I’ve got my reading material. Later!” Unsurprisingly, Heckapoo withdrew a pair of interdimensional scissors and opened a portal back to her real, taking Ludo’s notebook with her. Hopefully, the same technical mind that refined interdimensional transportation over eons could figure how to develop a machine to achieve their desired effect from just the schematics.

“OMNITRAXUS PRIME ALSO WANTS TO CONTRIBUTE!” The enigmatic sphere declared proudly before his face disappeared into a cloud of static.

With everyone leaving, Moon took her own exit and with no one else there, she could finally wear the nervous feeling that had been building up in her stomach over the past half hour on her face. As the queen of Mewni, ensuring the safety of her kingdom always weighed heavily on her mind, and as the latest in a long line of magic users the increasing trend of magic shortages doubly had her concerned. However, factoring in this business with Ludo and the missing half of the Butterfly family wand forced her to consider that there was a thread running through all of these recent cataclysms, and were her theory accurate, than a storm was coming to blow her kingdom apart, and she would be helpless to stop it. ‘Toffee…’ she muttered under her breath, before staring down at her gloved hand and shivered at the thought of what laid underneath.

“Hrrgh!” Rhombulus let out a forced groan as he picked up his latest prisoner off the ground, Lekmet too busy tapping his horns against a support beam to notice. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get home! We’ve got to get this new guy situated.”

Turning his attention to his roommate, Lekmet let out another bleat, “BLAH!!!”

“Come on! We have, like, a dozen places to put him!” Rhombulus countered, wobbling over in Lekmet’s direction with Ludo’s petrified body setting him off balance.

“BAH!!!”

“Oh, don’t give me that ‘feng shui’ business! You took one semester in interior design back in college. I’m the multiverse’s resident warden! I say, we keep him!” Rhombulus ordered, as Lekmet opened the rift back to their home dimension.

“BAH!!!”

With a defeated sigh, he agreed to a compromise. “Okay, fine, he’ll keep him in the game room for now. Not like I ever get to use it…”

“BAH!!!”

“Why yes! You can so play foosball with snakes for hands!” the diamond headed warden put his foot down one last time before disappearing into the rift.

This left only the slender figure hiding in the shadows of a stack of barrels of long expired corn meal. With the Magical High Commission having retired for the evening, he’d have to make sure to keep tabs on them.


	6. Girl Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie and Star have a talk about Marco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Menage a Star: NOW WITH SHAMELESS LESBIAN OVERTONES! Well, not really, but as always, please enjoy, and comment please! Also, with this update, I've made some updates with Chapter 4. Nothing that really changes the story, but just trimming some stuff down and making Marco's motivations in the end a little more vague.

Chapter 6: Girl Talk

3:00 pm couldn’t have come soon enough for Jackie Lynn Thomas that Monday afternoon. She had enjoyed the brief respite provided by the previous weekend, give or take time spent on homework, chores, and other forms of self-care, but being trapped in the school building for seven hours replaced any peace of mind with the nagging reminder of her promise to get back to Marco. This morning, for the first time in ages, the young man had forgone their habitual nod, instead putting his head back into his locker the minute their eyes locked. In his defense, Jackie assumed that Marco merely realized that the girl wanted some space after the emotionally draining weekend for the two of them and, with his usual kid gloves, did not want to force a premature decision from her, but the unintentional reminder still set a sour precedent for the rest of the day. Lectures in history, physics and algebra all played in the background as she attempted to sort out her feelings for the boy, just to come crashing down whenever the school bell rung or Ms. Skullnik shot her a glance and she needed to pretend that she was paying attention. After six periods with no results, Jackie felt as lost as she did that Saturday afternoon, as demonstrated by her listless gait down the school hall while the rest of her colleagues rushed pass. The only thing to bring her out of it was the sight of a familiar tumble of blonde hair marked by a pair of red horns, currently reorganizing an overstuffed locker, someone who could perhaps help her gain perspective. “Hey, Star!” Jackie called out, easing into things.

The princess instantly recognized the raspy voice and cautiously turned from her work, a math textbook limply hanging in her wrist. “Oh… hey Jackie…” Star returned the courtesy, a bit on guard hoping that the massive pile of books behind her would remain stable as she closed the locker. “How’s your day?”

Jackie had to stifle a groan, but covered it with a casual shrug. “Can’t really complain. What about you? Any plans for the rest of the day?”

“Nope. I’m a free woman.” Star slammed the locker shut with her back while answering, “Marco has karate practice this afternoon and Glossaryck cancelled training this afternoon. Something about emergency business with the Magical High Commission.”

“Oh…” Jackie began, seeing an opening, “Seeing as you don’t have anything going on, do you want to hang out a little bit?”

“Hang out? Oh, well I…” Star began to hem and haw, rocking back and forth on her heels until an excuse came to her.

On a normal day, Star would have jumped at the invitation with her typical level of exuberance that made her so popular, but after Saturday, she could not help but approach Jackie with a level of trepidation. Of course, she knew that it would be unfair to hold her accountable for Marco’s despondent mood for the past two days, if she was not interested, that was her decision, but she realized that things were currently tense between her two friends, and anything she did or said to the other could cause irreversible damage, something she would never forgive herself for. Jackie anticipated Star suddenly not wanting to be with her since last week, as much as she didn’t want to see her theory gain credence, but she was desperate to get to the bottom of this and sought to sweeten the deal. Literally. “I was going to grab some ice cream on the way home. Come on, my treat.” Jackie added casually, but the princess remained evasive until she continued in a softer tone. “Look, after what happened last Friday, I figured we could use a little down time. I mean, you seemed a little shaken up and I kinda took off in a hurry, so how about it?”

Jackie felt no shortage of guilt lying about her intentions and for all she knew touching upon what could be a fresh mental wound for the young girl. In the end though, it worked as Star eventually gave the girl a warm smile. Loyalty to her best friend withstanding, she still liked Earth girl and the company she had only just started to provide her. “You had me at ice cream! Lead the way.” she chattered, throwing an arm up in an adventurous, welcoming pose, hoping the performance would distract from her hesitance.

Their trek through downtown Echo Creek was an uneventful, silent one, much to Star’s relief. While Jackie acted as navigator, part of her mind was divested to planning out her conversation with her friend, how to bring up her possible crush without seeming catty, or damaging their relationship in the long run. Every so often, between counting blocks and reading street signs, she’d gaze to her left at the girl to her side, her heart-stamped cheeks in a blissful smile, completely unaware of the trap she had set. Jackie could only hope that unbreakable positivity would keep up when the pair reached “Scoop! There It Is!” at the intersection of 2nd and Bonner Avenue, and realizing she couldn’t put it off forever, pushed her way through the front door, chiming the bell at the top. Star bolted to the front counter and Jackie felt her nerves briefly numb at her friend’s child-like glee as she took in the offerings behind the clear counter, hands pressed against the glass and her bated breath forming a cloud of fog. “What’ll it be?” the paper hat clad cashier asked in a rehearsed monotone.

“I’ll take a sundae!” Star announced proudly.

Her server, though, lacked her enthusiasm. “Alright...”

“With hot fudge! And whipped cream! And rainbow sprinkles!” Star added, eyes growing even wider with each addition.

“Duly noted,” the man behind the counter added with a sigh.

With her full order given, Star waited as her attendant worked his magic, flicking a total of five scoops of vanilla ice cream into an elliptical glass bowl, before passing the bowl under a small deluge of room temperature chocolate sauce, a bit of saliva already forming on her lips. The whipped cream came next, emerging from the pressurized can with a hiss as the fluffy substance skirted across the hills of the dessert and with a flourish of rainbow sprinkles, the dish landed in front of Star with a graceless thunk. Star took in the treat with shimmering eyes, though the sparkle faded soon after. “Uh… ice cream guy,” she began, “I don’t think these are enough sprinkles.”

The underpaid employee had to hide the agitation on his face before reminding himself that the customer was always right, so he merely retrieved the shaker from the back table and returned to the counter to face the girl. With a few more dashes, he set his hands firmly on the counter and asked, “Is that enough now?”

Star noticed a hint of sarcasm in her server’s voice and sharpened her gaze in turn. As both a princess and a loyal patron, she demanded respect and issued her terms, “I’ll let you know when it’s enough…”

“Of course,” the ice cream man accepted his fate and resumed dispensing an shower of multi-colored sprinkles onto the treat below, with a self-satisfied Star chuckling all the while. Soon, the range of ice cream, fudge and whipped cream was adorned with a veritable mosaic of sprinkles and the cascade of sprinkles slowed to a trinkle as the dispenser found himself shaking his palm fruitlessly. “That’s enough, thanks!” Star finished with a smile, grabbing her bowl and taking off to a pair of stools near the front of the shop.

Before the overworked server could object, Jackie raised a hand to draw attention to herself. “She’s with me.” she interjected. “Just… get me a root beer float.”

Jackie soon found herself with her aluminum tumbler in hand and went to join Star at her table. The girl was courteous enough to wait for her before tearing into her coveted dessert, but the minute she settled into her chair, she stabbed her spoon into the heart of the hot fudge sundae before her and took a hearty first bite. Lips sealed tightly around it, she slowly withdrew the utensil from her mouth to scrape off every last bit of congealed chocolate sauce and allow the slowly melting ice cream to dance on her tongue as long as possible. Jackie wished she could be as blissful, but she had too much on her mind at the moment; she took her first sip, but the zing of the root beer and creamy vanilla just barely calmed the nerves in her stomach. “So…” she began wrapping her fingers tightly around her cup. “You said something about training your magic earlier. How’s that going?”

“Hmph?” Star’s mouth was still full at the moment, but a harsh gulp solved that problem and she excitedly answered, “Oh, yeah. After last weekend, I figured I could use a bit of training, learn a few more technical spells I’ve been putting off.”

Star noted that the napkin dispenser at her and Jackie’s table sat empty, and she knew just how to rectify it. “Here, let me show you!” She began, putting down her spoon to reach for the wand in her side satchel.

Star’s attention focused on an empty table in the center of the room, which from her seat she could see had no shortage of paper napkins bulging out of its dispenser. Twirling her wand in her wrist, she pointed it in the small box’s direction and shouted, “Levitado!”

Sparkles flew out of the small wand and into the dispenser, which shortly afterwards began to hover in the air and slowly but surely wobble towards the two girls. However, the box soon tumbled in mid-air over one corner and, now inverted, the front panel dropped off and the numerous cloths inside fluttered to form a pile on the ground. Seeing all of this from his station behind the counter, the cashier reached for a broom and dustpan in the back corner with a defeated sigh, “Serves me right for majoring in philosophy…”

Looking over the mess she made with a sheepish laugh, Star quickly pocketed her wand and explained, “Yeah… I’ve still got a few while to go before I get it down.”

Having broken the ice, Jackie realized this was the best opportunity she’d have. With another sip from her root beer float, she took a deep breath and began. “Look, Star.” She began slowly to get the girl’s attention, and give herself time to choose her words. “Last Saturday, when Marco and I were hanging out… he asked me if I wanted to go steady.”

Star felt her stomach, already weighed down with a few bites of melted ice cream, drop even further. She could tell from Jackie’s controlled pace that this wasn’t an easy subject for her to bring up, and she felt if she let it slip that she knew how it played out, the girl would be further devastated. For the moment, though, she could only play along, innocently taking another spoonful to her mouth. “So… what did you tell him?”

Another sigh escaped Jackie’s lips as she placed her elbows on the table and supported her temples in her hands. “I… told him I’d think about it.” She explained, hoping it sounded less like a cop-out to a third party. “I mean, look, Marco’s a nice enough guy, but it’s just… well… he has, like, zero self-esteem. I mean, he took me to this arcade in Mewni, I thought everything was going great, but then he started talking about how he got lost in another dimension for 16 years, and how he nothing he does matters.”

‘Oh, so that’s what happened Saturday. No one breaks a man’s spirit like Heckapoo…’ Star’s mind wandered off before taking another bite of her sundae, but not breaking eye contact.

As apprehensive as Star was about meeting with Jackie earlier, part of her was actually enlightened to hear from her perspective. Now that she knew there was no malice between her and Marco, she dropped her guard, though, Jackie was not finished, “I mean, I’ve seen him do some pretty amazing things, like the fight in the cemetery, but when the smallest thing happens, he just falls apart.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Marco for ya…” Star retorted with a good natured chuckle, pointing her spoon straight at Jackie for added effect. “He can beat up a monster twice his size, but then he freaks out when he realizes his socks don’t match or something.”

Star only took a jab at the boy in good fun, but the girl on the other end of the table still bore a worried expression, eyes gazing down at her barely touched float in deep contemplation. She was getting distracted. It was time to bit the bullet. “Star.” She began, as the girl went in for another bite, “Do you think that maybe Marco has a thing for you?”

The question froze Star in her tracks, the ice cream in her angled spoon slowly sliding down back into the bowl with a wet plop before she even responded, “Say wuh?”

Recognizing it was a loaded accusation, Jackie elaborated after running another hand through her hair. “Look, I know it’s tacky to assume that just because you’re a girl and he’s a guy that something’s going on, but it’s like I just said. Marco has been a wallflower for nearly as long as I’ve known him, but the moment you turned up, he’s like a totally different person: going on all sorts of adventures, risking his life to make sure you don’t get hurt.”

It wasn’t the most outlandish theory. While the blonde princess may have been too naïve to acknowledge it, Jackie herself was aware enough of high school gossip circles to know that Star Butterfly was coveted by quite the number of teen boys in Echo Creek. The only thing that kept armies of suitors at bay, though, was the ambiguous relationship between her and her roommate and professed best friend, Marco Diaz. True, Marco had made it clear on numerous occasions that he had eyes predominantly for her, but she wasn’t quite sure how long this crush, born from a lifetime of putting her comfortably atop a pedestal in his mind, would last when he had a girl much more deserving of the otherworldly mystique he had heaped upon her, a girl who had literally opened up a whole new world of adventure to him.

And it didn’t help that Star was by far one of the prettiest girls in school, let alone compared to her. Her long locks of golden hair instantly outshone her faded out, platinum locks. Her crystal blue eyes and perfectly sized cheekbones looked like they were designed by a boy who only knew of women from the trashy manga she spent way too much time reading: much more appealing than her own face, with its eyes that always seemed too far apart on a face that was far too widely built. At this realization, Jackie couldn’t even maintain eye contact with the girl across from her, as superficial as it sounded, and allowed her gaze to droop. “And me? Well, it took him years before he could even get a sentence out.” She finished with a defeated sigh, limply laying her wrists on the table in front of her.

Star instantly picked up on Jackie’s sullen mood, and deemed it an ill-fit for the chill young woman. Leaning forward slightly, she put her spoon down for the moment and reached out to wrap her fingers around one of her hands, the intimate contact instantly jolting her attention. “Jackie, come on. You don’t have anything to worry about.” Star cooed, almost with a small laugh to suggest how silly her concerns were.

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked, drumming her fingers underneath Star’s hand.

Star withdrew her hand and continued. “Look, I’ve been living with Marco for months, and one of the first things he ever told me after we became friends was how he had a crush on you.”

Star straightened her posture to give her story more authority and her hand absentmindedly went back to her spoon. “Seriously, the kid’s got it bad…” she drawled, before taking another heaping bite of sundae. “He just has a problem talking to you because he’s afraid he’s going to screw it up somehow. I mean, you remember how much of a wreck he was during the sleepover, or the whole Naysaya thing.” 

Jackie remembered Marco’s confession to her a few days ago, and both accounts checked out. Star, however, was not done with her testimony. 

“I mean, I know my Marco,” Star continued in a now strained, airy tone, with a bit of swirled together ice cream and fudge dripping from her mouth, though that didn’t stop her from shoveling in more. “We’ve gone all over the multiverse together *nom* we hang out all the time, *amph* and, heck, we’ve saved each other’s butts *gulp* from Ludo’s minions more times than we can count *mmm*, and trust me, Marco totally isn’t interested.”

Star paused with a particularly grueling gulp, getting a fairly large half-scoop down her gullet and regretting it instantly. “Oooh! Brain freeze…” Star let her spoon drop into the now empty bowl in front of her with a clatter as both hands retreated to her temples.

As she nursed her headache, Jackie briefly excused herself to go to the table behind her and retrieve a handful of napkins for the girl to clean up the smear of ice cream now marring her pristine face. “You’ve got a little…” Jackie squeaked out when presenting them, brushing her lips with her other wrist for emphasis.

“Uh…” Star responded once she recovered, before realizing how quickly she polished off her own dessert, “Oh yeah.”

The girl sheepishly took the napkins while Jackie returned to her seat and took another deep sip of her drink. Not sure what to make of her friend’s slovenly display, she gave the beverage her full attention while her friend cleaned herself until she heard a pathetic rattling of air bubbles traveling up her straw. Setting her cup down, Jackie looked back to see Star’s face returned to its former glory, if not trying a bit too hard to create a welcoming feel, as she simply didn’t get the usual warmth she usually got from the princess’s smile. Regardless, Star continued with her soothing tone, “Look, just forget about Marco for a while. We’ve got the whole rest of the afternoon to ourselves, let’s hang out, go to a few stores, have some girl time! Just you and me!”

Jackie returned her smile, hoping to keep the tone of the afternoon a positive one. “Sounds good to me.” She answered, rising from her seat and grabbing her skateboard from her backpack so she’d have it upon heading out the door.

Star, however, couldn’t take her attention off the table. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a ‘root beer float’ before. I think I’ll get one for the road…” she contemplated out loud in a wavering tone.

Jackie said nothing as Star sauntered back to the counter and placed her second order with a rather frazzled attendant, though it didn’t escape her attention. The beverage in question, she knew, had about half as much ice cream in it as the sundae Star had just polished off, and thus wasn’t something ordered as an afterthought. Honestly, it came to no surprise to Jackie that the hyperactive girl would have such an insatiable appetite when it came to sweets, but given the circumstances, it only raised her recent suspicions.

Still, it was poor etiquette to bring up, so Jackie let the young girl sip from her tall paper cup in peace while she brainstormed locales they could frequent from the rest of the afternoon. She instinctively led Star around the corner where there sat a thrift clothing store she often frequented, but they came across a roadblock. Star’s half-drunken float dropped to the ground and Jackie’s attempt to make small talk came to a halt upon coming face to face with what could only be described as a muscular humanoid clad in a white tank top and jeans with the head of a deer coifed with a magenta beard. “Long time no see, Princess Butterfly…” he growled while ramming a balled fist into the opposite hand, while a bottom heavy devil-like creature with three heads and a bear with a horn upon his head nodded in agreement.

“Beard Deer?” Star gasped. 

She and Jackie instinctively began to pace backwards to put some distance between themselves and the beleaguered monsters, but heavy footsteps brought their attention to a menagerie of other creatures rounding the corner from which they came, emerging from behind cars and from crevices between buildings. “Lobster Claw? Big Chicken? Flower Guy?” her eyes darted from foe to foe with heightened senses before falling lax once more. “Oh, man, I’m a glad to see you guys! I thought you all died when my wand wiped out Ludo’s castle. Seriously, like, huuuge weight of my shoulders!”

Beard Deer was unfazed by the young girl mock-wiping her brow in a flippant display, clenching his jaw as he retorted in harsh, unforgiving words. “Yes, our bodies healed from our last encounter, but not our spirits! Ludo gave us a purpose and family, but after we rejected him and Toffee destroyed our home, we drifted apart, taking up odd jobs to make ends meet.”

“I joined an improve troop!” Bearicorn joyously interjected, inspired a chorus of regretful sighs from the others.

Furrowing his heavy brow, Beard Deer sighed deeply, “Nobody wants to come to your improve show, Bearicorn.”

“Come on, one Thursday evening! That’s all I ask!” The large beast pleaded, arms held out.

“Anyway…” the deer attempted to get back on topic, “Word got out that our former boss tried to replace us with some fancy magic of his own and an army of common vermin, but still got himself captured by the Magical High Commission. So that got me thinking, ‘Hey, we were the ones always rushing into battle at his beck and call. If anyone deserves the wand, it’s us!’ So I put in some calls and got the old band back together!”

Despite her earlier bluster, Star now realized she had quite the fight on her hand, as the army of monsters in the vicinity slowly encroached on her to pin her against the side of the strip mall to her right. She found herself huddling closer to Jackie just to be safe, but still kept up her composure, “Well, I’d love to catch up, but you see, me and my friend here have plans for the rest of the afternoon, so I’ll have to make this quick. MEGA STARFISH TSUNAMI!”

Star stepped in front of her friend to reveal her wand and hopefully do away with her foes in one fell swoop. The front line of monsters flinched in anticipation of the all too familiar spell, but to their relief there were no starfish or even a drop of water to be found. Freezing for a moment to appreciate their luck, they could only gaze upon the coveted weapon as it produced the smallest lime green spark, and nervous mumbling from its wielder. “Heh, heh…” Star breathlessly laughed as her shoulders slumped. “I seem to be having a bit of technical difficulties.”

Realizing their once feared enemy was now vulnerable, the small army continued to close their circle around the two young women with a fiendish glint in their fangs while Star could only jostle her malfunctioning weapon. “Come on, Radical Rainbow Blast! Rainbow Fist Punch! Shooting Star Explosion!” Star continued to exclaim, though each attempt only produced more ineffective discharges that landed pathetically at the enemy’s feet.

Hoping that her wand would eventually cooperate, she did not anticipate the tightening grip of an arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her off to the side. She gave a quick “eek”, but noted thankfully, that the arm did not belong to any of her current predators, much too lithe and bearing a bland sun-kissed bronze color with a few freckles that looked more human than monster. Once she regained her awareness, she found footing upon an elevated platform that rocked slightly under her weight and in front of her, she spotted Jackie hastily strapping on her helmet before shooting her a determined look, “We need to get out of here.”

Star safely in tow, Jackie pushed off, aiming for a rapidly shrinking gap in the frontline of monsters and ducking under the armpit of an anthropomorphic giraffe like creature, his head to high off the ground to react to the nimble, smaller target. The reformed monster party turned to watch their prey scurry down the street, with Beard Deer bellowing out, “GET THEM!!!”

“Now just one minute!” one head of the conjoined demon twins piped up. “Who made you leader?”

“Yeah! We don’t need another Ludo!” His partner added.

“The common working monster should be able to make decisions without oversight!” Lobster Claws proclaimed, while he and the rest of the left flank grouped around Beard Deer.

“Okay, fine! We’ll put it to popular vote!” The de facto leader compromised spreading his arms out dismissively. “All in favor of pursuing the girl and seizing her wand, say Aye!”

“Aye!” The crowd announced in unison.

Beard Deer let out a sigh, gazing towards the downward slope of the street where the girl slowly slipped out of sight while the democratic process played out, “All right, it’s settled. WE GET THEM!”

In a familiar sight to the young princess, the monster army hurtled towards her in a cluster of misshapen bodies and sneering expressions. Normally, she would welcome the challenge, but with her wand not working, she was forced to retreat for the time being while she attempted to get it working again, flicking her elbow forward at the oncoming hoard to no avail. “Ugh, stupid wand! Why won’t you work?”

“Is this something that normally happens?” Jackie called out, a bit of worry creeping into her voice.

“Not usually. It’s been working just fine normally, and I just changed the battery.” Star answered, gazing at the jewel as it gave off yet another green spark.

“Wait. That thing runs on batteries?” Jackie asked, giving an inquisitive look. “I thought that thing was some sort of ancient family artifact?”

“Yeah it’s kind of complicated.” Star dismissed the topic, knowing it could wait for a time where their lives weren’t in immediate danger.

And it wasn’t like Jackie had attention to spare. While it mainly contributed to her image as laid-back, the girl knew from experience that skateboarding required a good deal of focus, keeping an eye out for potential hazards and road blocks to avoid a painful tumble to the ground as one dashed through without an immediate braking mechanism. At the current moment, this responsibility was even higher as the cantankerous mob chomping at their bit forced her to maintain a higher speed and offered a non-existent margin of error regarding spills. Also, much like her night at the graveyard, she also had to deal with the burden of a passenger, who kept her free limb wrapped around her waist for support which only served to make the ride all the more cumbersome. Yet, in spite of all these factors, Jackie could not help but find the whole predicament exhilarating. Obviously, the threat of death lingered uncomfortably overhead, but when the biggest risk available to her in the city was grinding down the handrails at the school entrance, the opportunity to push her skills to unheard of levels brought out the daredevil in her, though there were other motivations as well. What really mattered at this moment was keeping Star out of harm’s way; that and all the other smaller sensations that came with it, the scenery whizzing past her at break neck speed, her heart pounding from a combination of powering her legs and self-preservation, the wind billowing against her loose clothes and hair, seemed to overpower it. It should have been the furthest thing from her mind at the moment, but she thought back to the dichotomy of Marco’s character, and whether it wasn’t fueled by infatuation, but an even more primal instinct; a desire to protect those that are close to you, the knowledge that they were in danger and that you were the only person capable of saving them, whether or not that meant tapping into some sort of yet unknown potential deep inside. Again, the girl had more pressing matters to think about. “Star!” She called out to her passenger. “On the count of three, I need you to jump.”

Star took her eyes off the rapidly approaching hoard of monsters on their tail to give Jackie a nod, and felt their vessel drift to the left with a gentle sway of the pilot’s hips, their course now set towards a street pole marking the corner of Daron St. and Main. Kneading her brow in determination, she reminded herself she only had one shot at this, and gave the call, “Hold on tight! Three!”

Following both orders, Star tightened her grasp around her friend’s waist before lifting her feet off the ground. Jackie, in spite of the extra weight, flicked her board upwards with a twist of her ankles and reached out to the passing street pole, hooking it with her wrist and harnessing the resulting centripetal force to accelerate into a 90 degree turn, breaking away from the path of their pursuers. It was a move the girl had been trying to perfect for months, and it took every fiber of her being not to let out an adrenaline fueled whoop upon sticking the landing. Turning the corner also meant getting out of Beard Deer’s line of sight, and thus Jackie veered down the first alleyway she could find on the left hand side where she and Star could regroup. Her body felt heavy and cumbersome once she dropped a foot to the ground to grind to a stop, but after letting Star get down, she still had to strength to drag herself to the opposite side of a bulky dumpster that dominated more than half the alleyway. Here, Jackie squatted over to take some of the strain off of her quads and calves, and Star resumed her inspection of her misbehaving wand. “Still no luck with that thing?” she panted.

Star answered with another groan and slapping the weapon against her palm a few more times, “If I did, I could have blasted those guys half way back to Mewni!”

Jackie shared in the frustration, “I don’t get it! It worked just fine at the ice cream parlor! Why is it giving you problems now?”

Star had a theory, but all things considered, it was one she would rather not share.

***  
“Well, now that that’s out of the way, I guess we can get back to business.” Glossaryck calmly narrated before hovering back to his seat in front of Star.

“Yeah, Marco’s got a date with Jackie. He should be out of our hair for most of the day.” Star casually reassured her instructor.

Not one to care about other’s personal drama, Glossaryck attempted to pick up where he left off but his thoughts were interrupted once more, “He’s been looking forward to this for a while now, ever since we got back from the cemetery, it was all he could talk about.”

Glossaryck responded with a harsh look, requesting his pupil make no more disruptions. Star meekly responded by pursing her lips and diligently clutching a notebook and glittery pencil she had brought for her lesson, and her instructor began. “Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, because magic is based on the abstract, it manifests from a user’s emotions. This determines not only a spell’s potency, but a user’s arsenal of spells.”

“Magic…equals…emotions.” Star quickly jotted down.

Somewhat glad that Star was more attentive than he gave her credit for, Glossaryck brought his fingers to the sides of his head before emitting a cone of pink light onto the ground before Star, which soon manifested into a small recreation of the princess surrounded by all manner of furry creatures and rainbows. “You, personally, tend to be upbeat and exuberant, hence why your magic specializes in unrestrained, wide range spells, while the more precise, technical spells come a bit harder. Also, because you’re so optimistic most of the time, your positive energy supplies more than enough energy for these spells. Believe it or not, you actually have some of the highest energy levels of any princess I’ve tutored.”

Star gave off a small laugh at the faint praise, “Well, I do have a certain zest for life.”

“Little too much if you ask me…” Glossaryck muttered under his breath, never recalling Moon or Celena as being as much a handful as her. 

Back to the subject at hand, the span of the cone expanded slightly to make room for a much more crudely drawn image of Star’s all too familiar foe. “Conversely, Ludo’s magic was mainly driven by rage, bitterness and jealousy.” This was illustrated by the top half of the small caricature’s head rattling atop its bottom jaw as small squiggles emanated from its body, even causing the image of Star to recoil in fear. “As a result, his magic manifested in raw, unadulterated energy blasts, with no form or focus.”

“Happy magic = narwhals… Angry magic = green fire stuff…” Star paraphrased as she wrote in her notebook.

Glossaryck accepted that if that was how Star best understood it, he’d have to accept it. “Now, I use these two examples because they are the two extremes of the magic spectrum. Now this last bit is important.”

“Im…por…tant…” Star hummed to herself, writing the word in a starburst so she could relocate it easily upon later review.

“For someone as heavily aligned with the… ‘happy’ side of things as yourself, negative emotions like anger, or sadness, can act as a clog in your body’s magical reserves and may hinder your ability to use magic. So, it’s important for you to keep your well-being in check.”

Star finished squiggling in her journal before dismissively gesturing with her pen. “Come on, Glossaryck! This is me you’re talking about!” She laughed again to reassure him. “I’m totally in tune with my emotions! Don’t have a care in the world!”

Glossaryck took the response with a half-lidded stare. Generations of tutoring teenage girls in the art of magic helped him pick up on the tell-tale signs of lying, and Star, never the master of subtlety, had done nothing to fool him. Still, he would rarely have time with the young girl without Marco around to distract her, so he would humor her for the time being. “Well, I guess you’re right. Now, how about we practice some basic spells…”

***  
Despite the blue wizard’s suspicions, Star truly believed she was in control of her emotions that day. Staring at her momentarily useless wand another time, Star briefly made out another line of green energy racing around the head of the scepter and thought back to the similar color used by Ludo in their fight a few nights ago, and realized just how wrong she was. Granted, she had been able to use her magic just moments ago, albeit clumsily due to her lack of finesse, but that was before Jackie asked her a simple question. Did Marco love her? Obviously, Star couldn’t have known the answer (Glossaryck told her that telepathy was part of the advanced lessons), but in trying to comfort Jackie and ad-lib an answer, it brought up a host of emotions she’d been able to keep in balance over the past few days. Now, however, she was with a girl who’d be hurt by her dishonesty, and just like when she was a little girl and confronted by her mother, she felt the guilt of withholding information welling up inside of her. “Star!” the girl harshly whispered, gazing around the corner of the dumpster with needle point eyes.

Star took a peak down the alleyway and had to keep down a gasp. Rather than blindly rush past their small crevice, as both parties hoped, the army of monsters split up upon rounding the corner and having lost sight of their prey and now had taken to looking under cars, in mailboxes, and down other alleyways. They knew it was only a matter of time before process of elimination led to them. Behind them, on the other side of the dumpster stood a concrete wall with no footing to scale, leaving them pinned inside and with no way out aside from a confrontation. Star knew it should have been the last thing on her mind at the moment, but she felt that it was the only way she would stand a chance against the hoard. “I like Marco.”

There. After months of uncertainty, worrying how it would affect their friendship, she had told another living soul, one who would be most inconvenienced by that knowledge, in fact. Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to let her off that easily. “Yeah, it doesn’t look too good… wait, what?”

“I have a crush on Marco!” She belted out in the loudest tone she felt comfortable with. 

Despite all logic, Jackie took her eyes off the search party of monsters just a few yards away and gave all attention to the confused girl next to her. Wand still clutched in her hand, they now held up her head as tears began to form in her eyes and stream down to drive a break in the heart stamps on her cheeks as she continued to ramble. “I’ve been in love with him for a few months now! I want to be with him, and I know he likes you, and I know we’re supposed to be friends and I feel really bad about this but I can’t help it!”

“Star, your wand!”

“Exactly! Glossaryck was talking about how emotions mess up my magic, and that’s why it isn’t working! I’m upset that Marco doesn’t have feelings for me after everything we’ve been through, I’m jealous that he’s in love with you, I’m mad at myself for not saying anything earlier. And I know I’m a horrible person for feeling that way, but… but…”

The only thing that brought Star out of her diatribe was a brilliant green glow visible out of the corner of her blurry vision. Teary eyes shot open as she saw that her wand had become engulfed in a blaze of emerald energy similar to that which Ludo wantonly wielded during their last few encounters. More concerning though, was the sight of Bearicorn standing at the mouth of the alleyway, motioning for his allies to converge and they could take their prize. Hoping to resolve both at the same time, Star tried to put on a determined face and directed her charged weapon at the oncoming hoard while Jackie huddled further into her corner near the dumpster. “I’m sorry I got in the way of you and Marco. I never should have gotten in the way and now we’re going to… I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to…”

For the briefest moment, she considered that this could have been it for her, and the knowledge that her volatile emotions caused it just provded more kindling for her flash fire of emotions. Her enemies came slowly, the narrow bottleneck of the alleyway hindering the movement of their hulking forms. They pressed on regardless, only to regret that decision when they saw the eerie jade glow emanating from the girl’s supposedly dormant wand and the frenzied expression on the young woman’s face, eye liner melted into a dark smear around lightly blood shot eyes and gnashed teeth grinding in tune with her self-deprecating mantra, “I’M SORRY!”

With that, the shadowy alleyway lit up with a bright green filter as a massive cylinder of the forbidden energy rushed down the narrow opening, consuming the bottlenecked monsters in one unforgiving attack. Star took the opportunity to let out a cathartic, anguished scream as the discharge reverberated up her arms and rattled her petite form, all the way until she couldn’t feel the oddly comforting warmth of the energy blast anymore. The moment she didn’t, she dropped her arms and her tender eyes scanned the aftermath of her assault. The cacophony of moans and grunts gave the welcome knowledge that the monsters were still alive, but in no condition to fight. “All in favor of just…” an soot-laden Beard Deer barely managed to wheeze out, flat on his back just like his other compatriots, “…lying here for a while… Say aye!”

“Aye…” the rest of the troop added in weak unison.

Finally able to relax, Star’s knees turned to jelly from a combination of both physical and emotional stress, but a familiar set of arms swooped in at the last minute. “Star!” Jackie called out before embracing the girl, who fell limply in her arms.

Head tumbling forward as Jackie’s arms secured her ribcage, a tumble of hay-colored hair obscured the young girl’s expressive face and she could only hear a weak, mournful keening emanate from beneath. “Look, Star, it’s okay…” The girl gently spoke, a bit concerned by her friends multiple outbursts. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. I don’t hate you…”

Star hung limply in the girl’s interlocked arms, gladly taking the moment to let her turmoil melt away from her mind and feel nothing but the smooth, soft skin yielding under the weight of her body. Eventually, she found the strength to lift her head to face Jackie, who noticed a sallow look to the girl’s face. “Too… too” 

“To what?” The skater girl assumed the worst, attributing it to the girl’s emotional state and the dark magic it fueled, until the girl let out another groan, and under her arm she felt her motion towards her belly. 

“Too much ice cream… And then… skating down the hill… and then getting all worked up… not a good combination. My poor tummy…” Star finished with a pathetic wince.

In spite of everything that just transpired, or perhaps because of it, Jackie couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sight of the old, if somewhat childish, Star shining through. “Look, we’re only a few blocks from my house. We can get something for your stomach there.” She added with an earthy chuckle.

Stars cheeks flared out once more, though thankfully nothing else came up, and the two friends began the task of carefully navigating the battlefield of ragged bodies, Jackie still helping to steady her friend with a sturdy shoulder.

***  
Soon enough, the duo retreated to Jackie’s home and Star found herself sitting comfortably on the girl’s bed, legs swinging back and forth as her eyes scanned the immediate surroundings. Despite Star’s popularity at Echo Creek High, the retreat to Jackie’s bedroom constituted the first time she had been invited to the bedroom of another teenage girl on Earth, and curiosity helped her cool down from her latest confrontation. Oddly enough, the room bore more semblance to Marco’s bedroom than her own feminine spire at the Diaz household, a rectangular, utilitarian layout with a desk and laptop, the walls adorned with posters (though of popular indie bands rather than Marco’s prized vintage martial arts movie collection) and the ubiquitous clutter of recently worn clothes littering the ground. Jackie obviously had not expected company, and thus approached her with slouched posture after leaving her to her own devices for a few moments to fetch a glass of clear liquid. “Here,” she offered to drink to her friend upon taking a seat next to her. “Fizz Cola. It should help with your stomach.”

Right on cue, Star’s stomach churned uncomfortably, spurring her to accept the glass and take a sip. She had doubts about drinking anything more for a good while, so she began with a single small sip of the light beverage. “Thanks, I…*urp*” Star instantly blushed as her apology was cut short, but she felt the slightest bit better for it.

Jackie let her know it was no problem with another gentle smile, “Relax, the stuff’s just doing what it’s supposed to.”

After that, the two sat in silence, Star taking the occasional drink whenever her stomach misbehaved again, while the other girl could only clench the comforter in her fists, knowing she couldn’t put this off forever. “So… you and Marco…”

Star too knew it was time to address this issue, corn knows what happened when she tried to bottle it up. “Yeah, me and Marco,” Star lifted her legs onto the bed and turned to face the girl, and with a deep breath, she began, “I don’t really know what to say. I mean, when I first met Marco, a lot of weird stuff was going on. I was being sent away to a whole new dimension, had to go to a normal school, and a bunch of other Earth things that I had never seen before, so I guess that I just sort of latched on to him as an anchor, or something. I mean, I thought he was kind of cute, and he could beat up a monster with just his bare hands. If that isn’t something you look for in a man, I don’t know what is. And, also…”

Jackie continued watching as Star took one more sip from her drink, recognizing the stalling tactic for what it was. “Also what?” she prodded.

Star’s eyes grew more evasive as she put down her glass and another sigh escaped her lips, confirming that something big was coming. “Before I came to Mewni… I had just gotten out of a bad break-up.” Star rushed through, garnering a wide-eyed stare. “He was a total jerk. We fought all the time, he had a temper like a warnicorn in heat… and for some reason, I thought I should give him another chance.”  
This led to yet another long pause as Star sunk further into her folded arms, and Jackie felt she needed to get things started again. “Wait, are you talking about that demon guy who came to school in the flaming carriage a few months ago? With the bad eye-liner?”

The low jab brought a much needed smile to Star’s lips before we continued. “Anyway, as you might have guessed, the night was a disaster… but then Marco tagged along. He looked so handsome in that suit of his, we danced, and after Tom lost it, I was finally able to give him what for.”

Jackie did not know how to handle this new information, but Star instantly picked up on her uncomfortable shift. “Look, Marco only came after me because he was worried about me. He told me it was a bad idea to go after him, and honestly, I should have listened to him. But still…” Star rolled her eyes back in her head as her voice became blissfully airy. “…after that night, I started to see Marco in a new way. Like… he was basically everything that Tom wasn’t. I mean, he’s kind, for one thing…”

“He’s smart, too. He’s always been one of the top students in class for as long as I’ve known him.” Jackie interjected. 

Obviously, the boy had been on her mind a lot over the past few days, and she’d been thinking about his positive traits just as much as the things that fueled her anxiety, weighing the two against each other to inform her decision. She’d been focusing a lot on the latter, recently, but Star’s heartfelt recount helped remind her of the reasons why she was putting so much emotional capital into this dilemma. Also, the smile returning to the girl’s face, which still bared a slight puffiness and ruddiness from her earlier breakdown, was something she wanted to further nurse. As intended, Star momentarily forgot about their inherent rivalry and continued, “He’s honest, trustworthy. I mean, you do not want to know how many times I had to ask Tom where he was last Saturday night.”

Jackie sensed a harsher tone creeping into Star’s voice, and, not knowing just how bad things were between Star and the literal demon, sought to re-establish the topic at hand. “Marco’s funny, I mean, not ‘ha-ha’ funny, but just the way he reacts to things, I mean, it’s cute, kind of,” She added, not knowing the cavalcade she opened with that four letter word.

Sure enough, Star’s constitution melted into a gleeful smile as a mental image of the boy creeped into her head. “Yeah, he is pretty cute…”

Now that that can of worms had been opened, Jackie gave an unapologetic smile to match Star’s own. She could give a recount of Marco’s character to justify liking the boy, but at the end of the day, she had to admit that all attraction had a physical component and her budding affection for the shy, uncommunicative boy was no different. “With those brown, puppy dog eyes…”

“Oh, and that little mole under his eye…” Star enthusiastically added, scratching the area for emphasis.

“That tight little butt…”

“Yeah… wait, what?” Star face faulted as the conversation veered into an area Star hadn’t planned on, spurring a small uproar from her coconspirator.

“Dude! I’m just messing with ya! You were going all goo-goo eyed over Marco, and I couldn’t resist!” Jackie chortled, playfully rapping Star on the shoulder.

“Heh, yeah,” Star clarified with a deflated chuckle, but by doing so, realized they were going nowhere, and harsher truths needed to be addressed. “But, it’s like I said earlier, by that time, he had told me about how much he liked you, and it was around that time he really started trying to talk to you, so I felt that if I told him I liked him, it would be awkward, and I’d just be getting in the way. I mean, he had wanted to be with you for years, and I had only been in his life for a few months, and I was still getting over Tom and… Ugh!”

With a frustrated sigh, Star’s upper body fell forward in emotional feet, with her face landing upon Jackie’s upper legs. The girl barely had time to reel back in surprise, as the princess made herself at home upon her thighs, firm with muscle from years of skateboarding and providing the ideal support for her emotionally drained form. “Why do relationships have to be so frustrating?” Star gave a muffled, nearly indecipherable bellow.

Still, Jackie could feel her friend’s words in the form of harsh breaths upon her bare skin that reverberated all the way up her form, leaving a trail of goosebumps. Pushing things even further, the girl felt it necessary to face her friend before continuing her rant and twisted her whole body to face upwards, rolling her head dangerously closer to the girl’s lap and now grazing her legs with her silky smooth, blonde strands. Now, Jackie had the benefit of seeing Star’s cherubic face look up to her with an endearingly needy glint to her eyes as she stared hopelessly at the ceiling fan. “Seriously, I spent so much of the past few weeks wondering if I really do like Marco, or if he likes me, or how he likes you, or if you like him back, or if I like you enough that I’m willing to get in the middle of the two of you…” Star brought a hand to her head as her thoughts ran away from her before lashing the limb out in frustration, “Ergh! I mean, can’t we just all like each other and that be that?”

At some point during Star’s admission, Jackie found a stray hand of hers running down the length of Star’s upper arm. What started as a vain attempt to politely shoo the girl out of her compromising position on her lap had turned into a subconscious cycle, almost comforting to the blonde girl underneath. “Lovely sentiment, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal in California,” Jackie crassly responded.

“Jackie! That’s not what I meant!” Star directed her eyes to meet the other’s straight on, but the rest of her body remained still as ever. “But honestly, what are we going to do about this? I like Marco, he likes you, but he can’t get it out, so I guess this all depends on how you feel…”

With that, Jackie’s arm gradually ground to a halt along Star’s upper arm until it stopped somewhere around the crook of her elbow and froze, as though to return the favor and keep Star in place as she came to her decision. Lost in deliberation, she could only gaze down into those longing, icy blue eyes that seemed desperate for resolution and felt the need to comply. After all, she came to Star that afternoon hoping to finally make that decision, and while things hadn’t transpired the way she thought they would, she felt the time had come. “Look, we both like Marco, so I think the most logical thing to do is to… let him choose.”

Star once again rolled along the track of Jackie’s legs back onto her stomach, this time her chin hanging over the girl’s outer most leg. “Boo! That’s not a decision!” Star whined, her face collapsing into a pout.

Star having slipped out from her grasp, Jackie found her hand cupping the back of Star’s head as she gave her reasoning. “Look, I figure it’s a win-win. You get to find out if he likes you, and we both don’t have to pull our hair out thinking about it. And, well…”

“Well, what?” Star asked, turning to face Jackie, whose hand slipped from her head and collapsed onto the small of her back.

“Before you showed up, Marco and I never really talked that much. Not at all, really. But that doesn’t mean that I never noticed him. He had a reputation as a nerd, a klutz, and obviously he was never one of the cool kids. Heck, even after he started hanging out with you, he could never catch a break. But, honestly, it sort of made me respect him. I mean, no matter what humiliating thing happened to him, no matter what the universe threw in his face, he always managed to get back up and try again. It was like when I first started skateboarding, I fell on my butt more times than you could count, the other kids at the park would laugh their heads off at me, but eventually I just brushed myself off and tried again. And again, until I got it right. Basically, if I’m really that important to Marco, he’ll do the same. I mean, that’s how he got over the monster arm thing, or the neck monster, or when he tried to grow that moustache.”

Star gave a small nod in agreement, knowing from personal experience how much the boy could take on their exploits, “Yeah, the boy cannot pull off facial hair…”

“Jackie! I’m just here to change clothes before I head over to…”

Both girls shot their attention to the doorway where a figure in a flowing with coat had just come to a stop, taking a moment to take in the sights. Jackie reasoned that in wanting to comfort Star she completely lost track of the time her mother would come home and during the heat of her confession, her mind wrote off the light rumbling of the front door’s deadbolt that normally announced her arrival. A moment too late, Star sprang up to a kneeling position and straightened out her dress and Jackie innocently folded her hands over her now empty lap. “Hey, mom!” Jackie greeted, hoping her pleasantries would smooth over the situation. “How was work?”

“Just fine.” She answered quickly, much more concerned with the strange girl in her daughter’s bedroom. “I see you brought a friend home.”

“Oh, yeah, I told you about Star, haven’t I?” She calmly recovered.

Star took her cue to gleefully jump from the bed to meet the older woman, presenting a hand for a swift shake. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Mrs. Lynn-Thom…”

“It’s just Ms. Lynn. Anyway, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Jackie’s mother said in a fairly dour tone, taking the girl’s hand much slower than she would have appreciated. While the teenagers of Echo Creek knew Star as a rebel princess from another dimension who brought magic and excitement to their humdrum adolescence, the adults knew her as the reason their insurance rates had spiked in the last six months. “Anyway, like I said earlier, I was going to get together with some of the girls from the lab tonight, and I just needed to get out of my work clothes. We have leftovers from over the weekend for dinner, that is unless your friend is planning on staying.”

Given the tone of the afternoon, Star realized that it would be for the best for her and Jackie to go their separate ways for the time being and told Ms. Lynn. “Oh, don’t worry, I was just on my way out.”

She took a few steps towards her friend, who had risen from her seat as well to greet her mother with urgent news, and wrapped her up in a tight hug. “Thank you so much for today, Jackie!” she announced in a rushed breath, lacking her usual glee but none the less sincere. “I feel so much better now that I’ve been able to get that off my chest after so long!”

With her chin lunging over Jackie’s shoulder, the long-haired girl was spared both the mistrustful eyebrow arch from Ms. Lynn and the less than enthusiastic look her daughter gave in return. “Hey, no problem. That’s what friends are for.” She responded stiltedly, regretting her blunt tone, but not happy at being unintentionally put on the spot.

Star luckily did not pick up on the sour tone and after picking up her book bag, bounced out of the room with a settled stomach and a not so heavy heart. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow!” she called from the hallway.

Cued by the sound of a slamming door, Jackie’s mother gave her daughter a knowing look, “So, this friend of yours…”

Jackie silently cursed Star’s liberal interpretation of personal space and her mother’s propensity to jump to conclusions, but knew she couldn’t challenge either directly. “Look, mom, it isn’t what you think.” She answered flatly.

She turned her back to place the remainder of Star’s soda water on a desk where it saw less risk of spilling over and fished a notebook out of her backpack to signify that she had moved on, but her mother had not. “Look, Jackie, I trust you, but I’m just a little worried about you. I mean, after what happened over the weekend, I just think you might be moving a little too fast.”

“I’m fine. Star and I were just hanging out. Nothing was going on between the two of us.” Jackie stated firmly, but her mother still had doubts. 

“Look, I was young once too, as hard as it is to imagine.” She trailed off with a humorous uptick to her voice, though the girl only continued to ruffle through her history notes. “I know you’re going through rough times, and I’m there for you to talk to if you need it.”

“Because that worked so well last time…” Jackie bitterly chided through clenched teeth.

Luckily, the older woman didn’t hear her daughter’s snide remark and sought to leave her to her studies. “Well, I’m heading out. I probably won’t get home until you go to bed. You know how Professor Grey gets whenever margaritas and karaoke are involved. Bye dear, love you!”

“Love you, too!” Jackie robotically gave her goodbyes for the evening, happy to avoid the conversation for another evening.

Likewise, she returned to her books not because she had a particular fondness for expansion of western settlements, but to help take her mind off boys, relationships, her mother and a certain interdimensional princess who had unintentionally made all those things that much more stressful for her. Jackie squirmed around in her chair a bit as she pulled it closer to her desk, and in doing so noted a thin yellow strand lying across the hem of her shorts, apparently the stress had been just as bad for Star. Immediately releasing it, the hair gracelessly drifted to the floor where it would blend in indistinguishably with the thick carpet, but even out of sight it still brought to mind the feeling of the girl’s face resting across her legs, the slight smell of children’s fruit flavored body wash that she had left behind, and her mewling voice, asking her if they could have it all. ‘No, I’ve got enough on my plate already.’ Jackie denied the encroaching thoughts, realizing she had a long evening ahead of her.

***  
Star returned to the Diaz residence earlier than she anticipated, her afternoon with Jackie again cut short due to unforeseen interruptions. “I’m home!” her voice rang out in its typical melody, to no one in particular.

“48… 49…” The monotonous, shallow breaths were the first things she heard in return and let her know that Marco had already gotten home. “50!”

With that, Marco collapsed in a heap on the carpet in front of the couch in the main living room, knees still pointed in the air and hands folded behind his head. Star approached the boy with caution, the boy having caused her enough stress this afternoon and his new behavior had her even more concerned. It also didn’t help that the boy had shed his traditional red hoodie, lying carelessly on the coffee table, leaving only a svelte white t-shirt over his body lightly glazed with sweat, his bangs sticking to his forehead in some places as he stared up at the girl now standing over him. “Hey, Star…” he panted, still flat on his back.

“Uh… hey Marco. Uh, what are you doing?” She asked innocently enough, fighting the blush that spread across her cheeks.

“Sit-ups.” He quickly answered, curling his core once more to sit back up and shakily rise to his feet.

Star tried hard to avoid his less covered form as Marco rounded the corner to get his hoodie, convincing herself that his musk was unpleasant to her. “So, why are you doing sit-ups?”

Marco paused with the red fabric in his hands. “I have gazed into the future. And the future, is abs.”

Abs and Marco were two words that Star had never once considered in the same sentence, though she found the thought dangerous alluring. “Abs…” she repeated to herself before shaking herself to her senses.

Marco continued, having grown use to Star’s occasional non-sequiturs, “Also, mom and dad called me while I was still at the dojo and said they’re going to be late coming home. So, we have the place to ourselves for the night.”

This revelation, too, excited Star. Granted, it also came with a bit of guilt, remembering Jackie’s kind words and hopes that Marco would eventually come around, but at the same time, it wouldn’t have been unfair if she gave Marco a push in her direction. Would it? “You know…” Star began, a smile fitting her devil-horned head band taking form, “We never got around to our movie night last weekend.”

“Yeah, I was kind of busy with other stuff…” Marco sheepishly brushed the back of his head, remembering his less than stellar impression he made with Jackie, his epic odyssey in Heckapoo’s realm and the new regimen he had put himself under to make up for both.

“So how about it?” Star proposed, taking out her mirror flip-phone with a smile, “I’ll call in dinner, you choose the show…”

Marco bit his lip momentarily, but upon further thought, realized he may not have been the most fun to be around this past weekend. They had several nights in like this in the past, thus he decided he both could use a bit of friendship time. “Sure, let’s go…” he replied with a smile.

“Excellent, though you’re going to have to take a shower.” She said before giving the young man a few customary sniffs. “You… kinda stink.”

“Oh, right! Also, don’t go overboard with the snacks! I’m trying to eat healthier.” Marco called back on his way upstairs.

With that, Star put in the call to her favorite interdimensional pizza parlor, a satisfied glint in her eyes. ‘Sorry, Jackie, but this princess plays to win…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, I'm happy with how this chapter played out. Again, I feel I'm starting to get into my grove as a writer, not bogging down chapters with pointless prose or having to outline a character's motivation every other paragraph. Thank you, RegistryofWords, for your helpful constructive criticism. Also, I had a lot of fun writing the dialogue and comedy in this chapter, and I hope you liked reading it. Bye!


	7. Playing Possum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star and Marco get an unexpected guest as they head on down to Echo Creek's annual Possum Festival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes are at the end of the chapter. As always, read, comment or leave kudos!

Chapter 7: Playing Possum

Marco slowly leaned out of his bedroom’s doorway, surveying the hallway on the other side. The coast clear, he carefully shuffled his way to the bathroom with a fresh change of clothes tucked under his arm while his eyes blinked away the last bits of crust from his eyes. A strained yawn left his lips as he reached his destination and placed his hand on the door knob, twisting it ever so slightly before the door was nearly torn off its hinge from the other side. “Good morning, Marco!” Star melodiously greeted, her sun dress clad figure framed by the doorway after completing her morning ritual.

The shock sent Marco falling backwards and managed to make his frazzled hair even more disheveled. “Morning, Star,” he muttered in response once he returned to his feet and brushed past his friend to the sink.

Marco’s options in the bathroom were limited with Star there, so he opted to brush his teeth. His mouth full of foam, Star took the opportunity to dictate her plans for the day, “You better get cleaned up quick, because we have a big day ahead of us. Ta-Da!”

Star pulled from her back a rather frayed flyer, which she thought necessary to take to the bathroom for some reason. Marco read the large, flowing typeface advertising the annual Possum Day Festival with exhausted eyes, spitting into the sink soon after so he could respond. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass.” He calmly answered, gently pushing the advertisement away from him as he approached the shower.

Callous as it seemed to put a damper on the girl’s plans, Marco, in his defense, had been giving the young woman a good deal of his time this past week. It began easily enough with a movie night on Monday evening, but each day after Star had taken the initiative to plan all manner of activities for the two of them, whether it be scoping out new restaurants in the multiverse Star had been dying to try, exploring uncharted regions of Mewni, or simply indulging in typical teenager activities. Marco’s calves still pounded from the tension of a marathon session at the Bounce Lounge the night before, and thus the young man hoped to have his Saturday to himself. “Come on, Marco! It’s a beautiful day outside, and you just want to sit around the house all day? I WANT ADVENTURE!” She growled taking a wide stance, her body nearly trembling with pent up energy.

“Star, I’ve been to the Possum Day Festival before. It’s just an excuse to get people to go to the boardwalk and spend $5 for a corndog.” He restated. “Plus, we’ve been going out so much this week, I’ve barely had time to do my homework, so, the only adventure I want to go on is to slay the evil book report and save Princess Grade Point Average.”

Marco thought this would have put an end to the conversation, but Star had one more trick up her sleeve. A dainty hand took hold of the boy’s bicep and pulled him in closer to a pair of shimmering blue eyes. “Come on, Marco…” the girl pleaded in that mewling voice that never failed to guilt even the heartiest soul. “It’ll be fun, and I won’t be able to enjoy it knowing that you’re just sitting around the house all by yourself.”

He could have again pointed out that they have been out quite enough that week, but he’d be lying if he admitted that he hadn’t enjoyed himself to some degree on each outing. It was especially welcome as he needed something to help cheer him up over the past week, and his ambiguous situation with another blonde girl in his life. While he was no longer wracked with nerves, he felt the girl deserved to see him at his best after all she did to help him out of his funk, and he gave her a defeated, but glad smile, “Fine, you win. Just let me get washed up and we’ll head out.”

Star couldn’t hold in her excitement as she let out a squeal and wrapped Marco up in her arms. “Oh yeah! Possum Day, here we come!”

“Star,” Marco began flatly, still caught in the girl’s embrace. “I need to take a shower.”

“Oh, yeah,” the girl released her grip on the boy and slowly backed away, “I’ll be waiting downstairs for ya.”

Star left Marco to his privacy and once she sealed the door behind her, she could finally unleash a self-satisfied chuckle under her breath, drowned out by the running water of the shower. “Doe eyes: Gets him every time.”

***  
To Marco’s relief, the pier wasn’t as crowded or unruly as he initially thought. True, clusters of families with young children or fellow classmates littered the spacious walkways and several dubious stands had been erected to take advantage of said increased traffic, but all in attendance were in good cheer and he could not help but take in the surroundings. Star, however, had him easily beat in enthusiasm, head adorned in a baseball cap commemorating the year’s festival, and a balloon tied to her wrist while her other hand wielded a snack. “You know, I was disappointed that this wasn’t really corn,” Star rambled, slurred slightly by a deposit of processed meat and cornmeal in her cheek. “But this is pretty good.”

Again, Marco could only offer a good natured smile. Even though several months had passed, the cautious teen still found his friend’s fascination with Earth culture charming, or at least it helped make the Possum Day gathering more refreshing for a life-long Echo Creek resident. “So, where do you want to go to next? Maybe go on a few rides, or do a little window shopping?” Star asked.

No answer came as the two continued to walk, though after a few steps, the girl noticed Marco’s attention pull to a stand on the other side of boardwalk. Star instantly perked up upon the boy finally finding something he found engaging and veered in its direction, waiting for a crowd of passerby’s to part, “Ooh, find something? See, I told you you’d have a good…”

“Hey… Jackie…”

Marco’s weak stutter caught Star off guard, but sure enough, when she regained her composure she spotted the boy’s crush leaning against the corner of one of the many confectionary stands littering the fair. Even worse, Jackie quickly returned the greeting in her typical cadence, “Oh hey, Marco.”

“So, heh, what brings you out here today?” Marco followed up, eyes locked with Jackie’s bold irises as Star hung idly by.

“Well, you know. I came for the local culture, stayed for the ridiculously unhealthy junk food.” She flippantly answered, gesturing with a plastic stick adorned with tuft of blue fluff coated in a golden brown shell. “Want some deep fried cotton candy?”

Marco recoiled at the questionable snack being thrust his way, and politely refused. “No thanks.”

“I’ll give it a shot!” Star interjected, lest her friend forget she was there for a moment, and took a handful of the fried snack.

Star gave an approving sigh as the layer of dough collapsed against the roof of her mouth and the sweet candied floss swarmed her taste buds. “Hmm, that’s good.”

“Yeah, the trans-fat gives it that extra zing.” Jackie sardonically agreed. “So, what are you guys doing out here today?”

“Well, you know, just two friends hanging out together, taking the town by storm!” Star answered, adding to the hype by seizing Marco by the upper arm and pulling him in close. “I mean, where would I be without my partner in crime here?”

The display spurred a sour note from Jackie, which thankfully went unheard by the duo. Marco pleaded his innocence with a nervous smile, but the platinum blonde had a fair share of suspicions regarding the princess’s motivations for spending time together, especially after her suggestion they let him decide things himself. “Do you want to come with us?” a gentle voice rang out.

“What?” Star let out in a voice harsher than was appropriate, snapping Jackie out of her thoughts. “I mean, today was just going to be the two of us! Star and Marco vs the world!”

Marco maintained his composure even as Star tightened the grip on his arm. “I just thought maybe she would appreciate the company. If you want to come along, that is.” he insisted, first to Star, then turning an inviting smile to the girl in question.

The young woman, though, took a while to respond. Were Jackie completely honest, she’d acknowledge that the reason she had come to the fair in the first place was to idly wander while her mind processed the revelations from the past week. Her outing with Star earlier that week had brought up a multitude of complicated feelings for her two acquaintances and their current entanglement and her mother, well-intentioned as she was, was ill-equipped to help her sort through the emotional baggage. Obviously, spending the afternoon with said friends was the last thing her psyche needed, but for some reason, she felt a need to tag along with the two, perhaps because she genuinely enjoyed the pair’s company, or perhaps because she felt a need to make up for lost time. Star felt her stomach churn once again when Jackie shrugged her shoulders, “Well, sure. Things are always seem to be more interesting when the two of you around.”

Marco returned the compliment with a smile, but Star had a much less flattered response. Seeing that her friend was still momentarily distracted by their new guest, Star discreetly untied the string around her wrist with a faint whisper, “I’m sorry little friend…”

“Oh no, I lost my balloon!” Star spoke in a louder, yet ambivalent, voice as the trinket floated into the lower atmosphere, Marco and Jackie giving it a customary glance as it drifted out of sight. “Oh, well, I’ll just get another one. Don’t leave without me!”

Star quickly darted away from the two classmates, and ducked her way into the first alley she could find once she was sure they had lost track of her movements. “Okay, Star, you don’t have to worry.” She rasped to herself, the laidback attitude she sported as she strolled the pier with her friend giving way to a manic disposition as she had to readjust her strategy. “You’ve had Marco all to yourself for almost a week, you’ve been whittling him down. Now you just have to keep his attention with Jackie around.”

With that, Star peaked around the corner to spot her potential suitor and rival still loitering outside the cotton candy stand, Marco’s body language as adorably awkward as ever while Jackie maintained her laid back fashion, effortlessly wrapping the teen around her little finger. Star also took time to note that the girl had made an alteration to her usual attire, donning a purple blouse with a frilly collar draped over her chest and cutting off to display a tempting amount of shoulder. A little lower, her board shorts gave way to a pair of jeans that covered her entire leg but still managed to capture the curvature of her hips. “Alright Jackie, you want to play it that way? Well I’ve got just the thing to even the playing field.” Star muttered to herself as she turned her wand to herself.

Had the independent young woman taken a step back, she would have realized that it was unbecoming of her two of her close friends in such a fashion, but last Monday’s incident had led to a change of perspective for the young woman. By confessing her crush to another sapient being for the first time, she realized that just as Marco had waited too long to make a move with Jackie, she needed to take more initiative with telling the boy she like how she felt, and as always nothing was ever a half-measure with Star Butterfly. “Heheheh… Oh, it’s on…”

“Look, Jackie…” Marco broke the silence that permeated between the two of them since Star had excused herself. “I just, wanted to apologize for what happened last Saturday. I wanted to show you a good time, but I wasted it wallowing in self-pity again like I always do… like I’m doing now, now that I think about it.”

Having had a week to prepare for this, Jackie took a sigh and cut the boy off before he could incriminate himself further. “Marco, it’s fine, something came up; I get that. To be honest, I feel kind of bad about how I left you hanging back there, and I think I owe you an answer.”

Marco’s entire train of thought screeched to a stop. Again, he had been so sure that his last outing with Jackie had been a failure he had forgotten how things had ended up in the air and, as Marco always did, he fretted that his recent outburst unintentionally pushed the girl to a decision. Still, he kept his cool, “And… what did you decide.”

The young man automatically assumed the worst when the girl broke eye contact and, for the first time in as long as he had known her, she appeared apprehensive when talking to him. “It’s just…”

“Hey guys!”

The high-pitched call of their friend offered a much needed intermission for Jackie and Marco as they broke away from each other to turn to Star. “Oh, hey Star, we were just…” Marco cordially responded, trying to hide his relief before he got a good look at her, “Did you change clothes?”

Star in turn gave a knowing smirk and twirled side to side to show off that, indeed, she had changed her wardrobe for the occasion. In place of the girl’s usual summer dress and long stockings, a baby blue t-shirt and jean shorts graced her body and shone against her milky white skin, which both Marco and Jackie couldn’t help but notice there was no shortage of from the top of her thigh to her sandal clad toes. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail weaved through the back of her cap to complement the sporty aesthetic, and from her neck dangled a crystal butterfly with amethyst set wings. “Oh, so you noticed,” Star giggled, her voice dripping with false modesty, “Well, the weather’s getting warmer, so I thought I’d try a new look. What do you think?”

“It’s, uh, different.” Marco played it safe, Star then basking in the complement.

Jackie kept silent, her eyebrows arching as she took in the girl’s aesthetic. “It’s a good look,” she ultimately decided, giving Star an encouraging smile.

‘Oh, I see,’ Star maintained her glow to hide her suspicions, ‘Trying to lure me into a false sense of security…’

Before Star could overthink the situation further, the trio was brought back to Earth by a loud crack resonating from one of the booths a few meters down the pier. She traced it back to a stand adorned with a banner depicting a small ballistic colliding with a structure of pins falling apart, but more importantly a collection of pastel colored stuffed animals lining the window peering inside. “So, why don’t we check that out!” Marco suggested, hoping to lighten the tension between the trio.

Both girls nodded in agreement and before he could disembark, Star closed in on her friend like a flash and reclaimed the boy’s arm to lead him to the booth. Such a move was not lost on Jackie, who was finally able to confirm her friend’s true intentions, but she kept them to herself, not wanting to fully surrender herself to jealousy. She instead put on a carefree smile as the trio reached the game booth and cast their gaze upon the prizes that awaited them. Particularly, the neon green dolphin caught her fancy. “It’s big, gaudy, and I have nowhere to put it in my room. I have to have it!” she chortled to no one in particular, but it didn’t go unnoticed by a boy in a red hoodie.

At this moment, another figure made itself visible after tending to a pair of unfortunate challengers, a middle aged gentleman whose lumpy body seemed unevenly stuffed into a pair of tattered overalls with a bald head encircled with a tuft of dark hair. A smile formed underneath the naturally curled moustache on his face as his eyes locked on the lone boy amongst the trio. “You there, boy.” He called out in a voice that was nasally, but carried well throughout the crowded walkway, “Why don’t you come on over for a game? Maybe win a little something for your lady friend?”

The implication set a blush upon Marco’s cheeks, but he recovered quickly. Thinking back to his unfinished conversation with Jackie, his lovelorn, adolescent mind saw this as an attempt to make things up to the young woman, and he instinctively walked up to the challenge with no second thoughts. “Got it, one stuffed dolphin, coming up!” the boy declared with a dramatic uptick in his voice as he peered over his shoulder to Jackie, who took the gesture with a small chuckle.

The older man’s appetite whetted as Marco withdrew a $5 bill from the rather thick collection within his plum colored wallet and he was presented with three balls. The game being fairly self-explanatory: throw the ball at the pyramid of plastic milk bottles and win a prize. Marco clutched one of the balls and brought it close to his chest, staring intensely at his target and picturing victory just as his sensei taught him, in this case a collection of bottles helplessly strewn across the shelf ten feet away. With a deep breath, Marco raised his arm far above his head, leaned back to the point that he almost lost balance and flung the appendage forward, letting go at the last second. The ball collided with a satisfying crash as the momentum carried over to the six bottles, but only five of them yielded to the assault, the bottom right of the base still standing defiantly. Marco froze in place as the game master, with a satisfied smile, casually reassembled the structure, but he refused to let this set back weigh to heavily on him, especially not in front of an audience. The older man moved off to the side and gave the signal for him to try again, and Marco determinedly reached for another ball, only to find another hand making the claim. Taking off guard, he turned to see Jackie had stepped up the plate. “Here, let me try.” She pleaded, fingers drumming on the second baseball and brushing slightly against Marco’s.

The young man wanted to protest, but he never was one for machismo and decided it spoke better of him to let the girl have this moment. “Your form’s a little sloppy.” She criticized, but in a friendly, constructive tone. “Let me show you how it’s done, it’s all in the elbow.”

To demonstrate, Jackie folder her forearm back against her bicep and brought the back of her wrist to her shoulder, the baseball resting against her earlobe for a moment much like throwing a shot put. Then, in an instant, the bundled up energy was released as the arm sprang forward, heaving the ball to once again collide with the tower of bottles. Sadly, though, it once again failed in its mission, with one bottom heavy soldier still unscathed. “Well, okay,” Jackie took her loss in stride, “Maybe it’s only 83% in the elbow.”

Amidst these two failed attempts, Star hung in the back of the group while Marco tried and failed to impress the other blonde girl and the moment to assert her dominance had finally presented itself. Taking a cue from Jackie, she proudly marched up to the booth and the other two parted as she forced her way to the final ball. “Well, that was fun and all, but if you want to win big, you’re going to need a little magic…”

Star reached not for the dilapidated baseball in front of her, but into her back pocket where she kept her wand and enveloped the small projectile in a light blue mist. The proprietor’s blue eyes watched with trepidation as the cloud of magic continued to build mass in a swirling disc of sparkling energy as the yellow-haired girl eyed her target with determination and her two friends slowly grew unnerved by the blatant overkill. “Um, Star, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Marco voiced his concern as Star readied her shot.

“Nonsense, Marco! I’ve been going over this spell with Glossaryck for a few days now. I’ve got it all under control.” Star reassured, right before the disc of shimmering blue magic froze in place and began to convulse inwards. “MAGIC BALLISTA BLAST!”

Those words were the only warning the proprietor of the stand needed to hurdle of the front bench before Star released the third ball in an explosive discharge, the veil of magic trailing behind like the tail of a comet on the short trip to its target. Surprising no one, the oversized magical missile overshot its target and while it grazed the top of the tower, the brunt of the impact was taken by the rear wall of the establishment, resulting in a shockwave threatening to knock loose several of the stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling and ruffling the hair of the trio of teens before peppering them with small flakes of drywall. Once things settled, the owner of the booth could only stare with jaw slackened grief at the sizable hole left in the wake of his customer’s wrath. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in, little girl? I oughta report you to the Festival Commission!” He roared at the blonde spellcaster, who uncharacteristically shirked under the looming figure.

Before Star could muster a manic apology, Marco’s voice came in with an accusatory tone, “Hey, what gives…”

Both Star and her accuser looked back to the site of impact and the latter’s righteous anger suddenly evaporated. While not the main target of Star’s poorly thought out assault, the force of the explosion had far felt ramifications and was easily enough to topple over the shoddily stacked milk bottles as it was initially intended to. All, however, except one, specifically the same lone milk bottle that eluded both Marco and Jackie on their tries. This pattern was not lost on the three teens, who turned their suspicious eyes towards the vendor, along with the numerous passersby who were alerted to the thunderous blast just moments ago. “Heh, heh,” he wheezed out, fidgeting his fingers nervously, “Well, it’s like they always say, the house always wins…”

Jackie ran a doubtful eye down the man’s form until she spotted an orange nozzle conspicuously jutting out of his back pocket. “Really? Then what’s this?” Jackie asked as her hand deftly swept over the middle aged proprietor’s overalls and withdrew a bottle labeled “Elder’s Industrial Strength Super Glue”, holding it at shoulder level for all to see.

The revelation only led the slowly growing crowd to cast even more judgmental looks at the shady dealer’s way, whose brow began to glisten with a nervous sweat, “W-W-Well, you see, this is all a very common industry practice… I mean, kids just aren’t spending much at carnivals nowadays, and I’ve got to make ends meet, so… I… YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!”

With that, the rotund man broke into a quick jog and darted down the boardwalk, attracting the bewildered stares of patrons as he loudly panted along the way. “Okay…” Marco sighed, wondering just was it about Echo Creek that attracted such colorful characters as he watched the con man dissipate into the distance.

Star, meanwhile, focused more on the crowd that had gathered around them and then on the now abandoned stall with its plethora of prizes. Raised with a medieval mindset of glory in victory, an idea quickly sprang to mind. “Hey!” she cried to get everyone’s attention, “Who wants a free stuffed animal!”

The patrons of the Possum Festival were a simple people and quickly broke into a cacophony of cheers and waving arms at the promise of free stuff, which only urged Star to hop over the bench and salvage a plastic bag of bears, dolphins and other plush creatures. Noting the dubious legality, Marco quickly trailed after his friend and raised his concerns, “Wait, Star, should we really be doing this?”

Before he could raise an arm in protest, Marco felt another hand perch on his shoulder to keep him in place as it cut him off to the stand. “Dude, relax.” Jackie scoffed with a mischievous smile.

She then flashed this smile to the rebellious princess within the stand, and for a moment, Star set aside their current conflicts as she found a partner in her newest exploit. Grinning ear to ear, she heaved the sizable bag over her shoulder and onto Jackie’s, who promptly tore through the plastic and began to indiscriminately toss dolls into the crowd, while Star did the same standing from her perch on the table behind her. “PLUSHIES TO THE PEOPLE!” She cried, getting fully wrapped up in the moment, before turning an eye to Marco and handing him the second half of the bag in hopes he learned from her and Star’s example.

Marco still had his doubts, but, not wanting to bring a damper down on the day, he found himself lobbing a few stuffed dolls underhanded into the grateful populace. The crowd thankfully thinned out before the trio could clear out their cache of ill-gotten goods, less their good intention lead to a riot, and once they had all left, Star furtively motioned her friends to peak within the booth where she had strategically set aside three massive dolls for themselves, a reward for their valiant deed. With that, the three left the stand behind and continued their way down the boardwalk, though with a bit of a hindrance. “You know,” Jackie was the first to address the issue, awkwardly waddling down the walkway with a neon green porpoise hugged in front of her person and blocking her peripheral vision, “Redistributing property was fun and all, but I don’t think I’ll be able to lug this around for the rest of the day.”

Star struggled to fight back a smile on her lips as the girl seemed ready to retire, but Marco was quick to chime in, “Here, I’ve got an idea!”

Halting, Marco set his bright pink dog onto the ground, where it still reached waist level, so that his arms were free to withdraw a pair of scissors from the front pocket of his hooded jacket. With one fluid motion, he opened an oval-shaped window peering into a small, well-maintained bedroom where he quickly deposited his pooch. “Here, you can just leave your stuff here, and grab it before you go home.” He extended the offer, nonchalantly directing his arms towards his bedroom.

“Thanks, Marco, you’re a life saver.” Jackie exaggerated with a grateful chuckle as she sauntered over to the opening and gentle tossed her new toy through the opening.

As small as the gesture was, the teen couldn’t help but bask in the moment and track the girl’s movements with dreamy eyes, especially as Jackie gave a pause in front of the portal to give him a warm smile while she stretched her previously strained arms out in front of her. “Excuse me! Gotta special delivery!” Star’s rushed words sliced through the intimate air as her body rushed pass the minute gap between the two as she dropped her jumbo sized teddy bear into the portal.

Her business done, she swiveled her head between the two with a unknowing smile and breathlessly asked, “So, what’s next?”

Giving her the benefit of the doubt, Jackie shifted her focus to the girl and dreamily recited, “Well, personally, it isn’t a trip to the boardwalk without a ride on the Skyward Squid…”

Star and Marco followed Jackie’s gaze to a bizarre structure further down the boardwalk, right up against the gate overlooking the ocean. Upon a stout metal shaft sat an hexagon-shaped canopy, upon which sat the titular cephalopod, with it’s spear shaped head jutting out from the center and each of its six tentacles stretching out to a corner of the carousel. Underneath each of these points hung a bench attached to a sturdy steel cable which was intermittently lowered to ground level to board new passengers before retracting into the sky and being spun around at high speeds. “Seriously though, once it gets too high speeds, it feels like your flying over the ocean,” Jackie continued.

Star took the sales pitch with an abrupt fluttering of the lips, “Big deal, I can fly on my own!”

For emphasis, the young girl once again held out her wand to remind Marco what she had to offer, though he had his doubts, “Yeah, on a semi-sentient cloud without any seatbelts!”

Granted, the young man wasn’t quite sold on the other girl’s alternative, either, as he watched the patrons embark upon the ride two to a bench trapped under a confining safety harness and were helplessly dangled high above the pier’s wooden floors before being swung around at a steep angle under the mercy of centripetal force. Jackie quickly caught on to the trepidation in his eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Relax, man. I’ll be your wingman for this one and make sure nothing happens,” she ensured him.

It wasn’t the circumstance Marco would have preferred, but he learned to take any opportunity available to be close to the girl and accepted the offer. “Well, okay, you’ve got me convinced.”

Star’s heightened senses picked up on this exchange as well, thus before the group disembarked for the ride she broke out in front of her two friends under the guise of her typical exuberance, “Alright then, let’s give this thing a shot!”

On the trek to the beginning of the line, which was mercifully short as the thrill seekers the ride normally attracted were outnumbered by younger and older families that day, Marco and Jackie hung close to each other’s sides, transfixed in that awkward teenage state of noting one’s presence but not wanting to send the wrong signal or come off too strong. Peering behind her to see Marco prepping himself for the ride, Star took a deep breath before engaging in a bit of foul play. “Wait, hold up, I need to tie my shoe!” she called out to the pair behind her, but gave them little time to react before kneeling over.

Thus, Marco gently collided with the new roadblock before him and naturally reacting to what impeded his progress, he came face to face with a pair of denim pockets returning his gaze, standing upon a familiar pair of silky legs. He realized he had held is gaze for a bit too long and sheepishly froze in place until his friend stood upright once more. “Oh, silly me, I’m wearing sandals!” Star laughed to herself.

“Hey guys! Are you coming or what?” Jackie called from the back of the line.

“Sorry! Just hit a little snag.” Star responded before reaching behind her and snatching Marco’s wrist once again. “Come on!”

The trio was soon reunited and gradually lurched towards the mounting area of the Skyward Squid. Soon enough they had reached the front of the line to greet the latest batch of riders teetering off the ride, the euphoric look on their faces only whetting their anticipation. Marco himself had spent the last several minutes prepping himself for the ride, and attempted to regroup with Jackie for their promised trip together, which the girl acknowledged with a casual smile. The reunion was short lived, sadly, as a burly arm gently brushed Jackie through the gate to the loading dock of the ride and paused in front of Marco’s surprised form. “Hold on kid, only two to a lift.” The tall, tan attendant indifferently instructed him.

Marco stammered slightly, realizing only too late that he had failed to take a head count and that Jackie had been paired up with someone else. He recognized the young man as Chet from the Echo Creek High swim team; it would have been difficult not to notice the 6 foot 3 inch mass of prime California muscle whose figure seemed to be barely contained within his half of the bench. Thankfully, he noted an apologetic look on Jackie’s face as she unintentionally left him behind to sit with the veritable stud, and his other companion jumped to his side for some consolation, just as she planned. 

“You know,” Star coyly whispered as the two took to their seats on the ride, “If this ride gets to be too much for you, don’t forget that I’m here.”

Her skittish friend still bore a disappointed expression as he responded, “Yeah, sure.”

Star took her friend’s moping with a stern look until the ride slowly began to rise into the air. Again, she offered with forced enthusiasm “Oh, it looks like the ride’s about to start! Here, take my hand in case something happens.”

Marco gave a sigh and politely declined, “Star, I don’t think that’s necessary…”

“Fine, be that way…” Star whispered as the benches began to move forward. 

Speed began to pick up and tension in the cables increased until the carriages flared outward at a steeper angle until the riders found the ocean underneath their feet and their loose clothing and hair billowed behind them. The feeling of slicing through the air managed to alleviate Marco’s ill-temper and, once again realizing he had given his friend a bum deal, took the girl on her offer and wrapped her finger around Star’s hand, which she gladly accepted with an excited grin. The young man smiled contently in turn and even went as far as to spread his free hand out in the air like some majestic bird as they soared through the sky, a gestured that Star soon copied. The two quickly took note of each other’s exaggerated posing and broke into a volley of good-natured laughter. The day had hit an unexpected snag in the beginning, but she felt that things had finally gotten back on track for the two of them, and Star wouldn’t have it any other way. “Ah man, Jackie was right, this feels amazing!” Marco exclaimed, trying to reclaim his breath.

Star knew deep down he meant nothing by it, but the mention of the girl was enough to take her out of the moment she had with the boy. She tried to push any oncoming jealousy to the back of her mind and lose herself to the relieving sensation of flight she enjoyed just moments ago, of being suspended at an angle while hurtling at high speeds, with the refreshing scent of salt water keeping her going. Still, even this sensation began to lose its appeal after a while, as Marco noted eventually. Perhaps months of adventuring and engaging in life-threatening situations had given him a higher tolerance for danger that a simple amusement park ride could not come close to matching, but he soon found it lacking nonetheless. “I just wish this thing could pick up a little…”

‘Heheh, there’s my little thrill-seeker…’

While he wanted to spare Star’s feelings, it was never Marco’s intention that the girl actually cater to his one small complaint, but she instantly latched onto the suggestion. A desire to salvage the moment for her own, to turn it into something only she could provide, saw Star reach into her back pocket for her wand and mentally recall another spell she learned from the past week, “Accelerado!”

Moving at such high speeds already, it took Marco a moment to register the mystical blue glow now emanating from the structure around them and attach it to his unintentional request. When he did, he immediately turned to the girl next to him with panicked eyes, “Star, wait, I…”

Before he could finish his posthumous warning, inertia slammed the boy into the back of his seat as the Skyward Squid violently lashed its tentacles at speeds unheard of with its magical enhancement. Any more words Marco had were drowned out by the roaring of passing wind that also flared his cheeks out like the parachutes on the back of a drag racer and also forced his eye lids permanently open to watch as the blue sky overseeing the matching ocean and the buildings of the pier blurred into a technicolor panorama. All this was accompanied by the soundtrack of Star’s overjoyed giggling and hollering at the thrill of it all. “Woo-hoo!” She shouted in delight, still lovingly caressing Marco’s hand and checking if her co-pilot was enjoying himself, and convincing herself that his distorted facial features were an over the top smile.

Thankfully for the young man, the attendant to the ride eventually stared up from his magazine and discovered that the stylized carousel trapped its riders into a whirling prison far faster than intended and immediately grasped the lever next to him. With a metallic squeal, the arms began to lose steam and to Marco’s perspective the distortion of shapes and colors slowly began to take form into something vaguely resembling buildings as, to his relief, things gradually came to a standstill. Not long afterwards, the central column receded into the ground and safety harnesses flipped open allowing a collection of weary, dizzy, patrons to exit on unsteady legs, struggling to exit the ride in the preferred orderly fashion as the world around them refused to stay still. “I hope you enjoyed your ride on the Skyward Squid! We hope to see you again!” the attendant barked in his rehearsed, friendly tone to the ride’s latest victims, who all looked significantly worse for wear. “I am so fired…”

Star Butterfly, as she earlier attested, felt no worse from the high octane ride through the sky and hopped down from the bench just as chipper as always. The same sadly could not be said for Marco Diaz, who all but stumbled out of the ride, legs wobbly from dangling helplessly for so long and the sallow look of his face reflecting the growing contention of his stomach. “Oh, are… you gonna be okay?” Star sincerely asked, gingerly bringing a hand to her lips as the boy kneeled over.

“Uhh…” was all Marco could muster for a response.

By all accounts, the young man would have felt even worse if he knew that Jackie had just returned to see him in his current state. The young woman, thankfully, did not take too much notice of Marco’s condition as she instead stared blissfully off into the distance, limbs limply hanging from her frame as her body still processed the experience. “Okay, to be fair, the ride doesn’t usually go that fast.” She explained to her unsteady friends, before her voice took an almost euphoric tone, “But man am I glad it did…”

As her body processed the last bit of adrenaline, Jackie realized that Marco did not appear to share his sentiment, only responding to her praises with a prolonged groan, “Whoa, dude, you want us to find a trashcan or…”

Giving a demonstration of his weak stomach was easily the last thing Marco wanted to do in front of Jackie, but to his relief, his surroundings gradually began to come to a standstill and level off so that he could regain his bearings. “No, no, I’m good…” Marco insisted, now that his stomach had settled back into place and he felt safe opening his mouth.

With that, the trio made their way back to the boardwalk, hugging tightly against the handrail to afford themselves a view of the ocean and avoid the dense crowds that had started to form in the late afternoon. To Star, though, the day was still young and full of opportunity, “How about we get something to eat?” she floated in a chipper voice. “I hear that you can get deep fried candy bars here!”

The very thought of food sent another wave of nausea through Marco, and he made a notable grimace in opposition. This did not escape his hopeful suitor, who pounced on the opportunity to bring the boy comfort. “Oh poor Marco, is your stomach still giving you trouble? Well, don’t worry, I know something that will do just the trick: some fizz cola, and you’ll be back at it in no time!” She coaxed the boy in a honeyed voice.

The scenario felt all too familiar to Jackie, but the girl once again opted not to get involved in Star’s efforts to charm the boy, and let things run their course naturally. To make her apathy apparent, the girl stretched her arms in the air and lunged her hips forward to work out the last of the lingering cramps from her time on the carousel, but as she let out a pleased yawn, something felt off. A hand brushed against her collarbone with increasing frequency as a look of terror settled onto her face, “Oh no… No no no no no…”

Jackie’s panicked mantra quickly drew Marco and Star’s attention, not used to hearing such a tone from their laidback friend. “What’s wrong?” Marco asked, his queasiness selectively receding.

“My necklace! I dropped it somewhere! You know what I’m talking about, the orange seashell?” she stated succinctly with a breathy, fearful tone.

Years of pining over the young girl ensured that the Marco had a clear image of the trinket, and the fact that he had come to associate it so heavily with her made it obvious that it was important to her. If that didn’t make it apparent enough, the girl’s temperament grew increasingly fretful as she swayed back and forth, and while it pained the boy, he kept a laser focus on her unsteady posture as she continued. “My mom gave it to me a few years ago, and I don’t want her to find out that I lost it,” Jackie took a deep breath and brushed her hair behind her ear to regain some semblance of composure “Okay, so we went to the cotton candy stand, the pitching booth, the Skyward Squid…”

What little tension Jackie expelled returned tenfold as her irises shrank and she turned to face the sparkling blue ocean to her immediate right, “Oh man, what if it got launched into the ocean when the squid hit Mach 3!”

Marco also turned his attention to the water for any sight of the necklace in question.   
Maybe it was due to his one penchant for jumping to the worst case scenario combined with his desire to prove himself, but in that moment Marco found a sound logic in Jackie’s worrying and if he approached it with a more clear head, he would have instead reassured her that she was getting worked up over nothing and it would eventually show up. However, before the two could both get a level head, Marco caught an orange glint in the water and common sense to a back seat to chivalry. “Hold on, I think I see something!” the boy announced with determination and before either of his friends could react, he had pulled himself over the handrail.

“Marco! Wait!” Jackie had barely snapped herself out of her own panic by the time her friend had flung himself into the drink and both she and Star could only stare on in silence as the boy breast stroked towards his target.

“Jackie,” A gentle voice called out from behind the pair.

Knowing their friend wasn’t in immediate danger in the fairly shallow water despite his impulsive actions, Jackie and Star turned around to find Chet, the former’s co-pilot on the Skyward Squid, standing unassumingly before them. “Hey, uh, I found this snagged on the safety harness back on the carousel, and I think it’s yours.” Chet explained holding up an orange seashell on a broken band of string, to which Jackie’s face lit up. “I would have gotten it back to you earlier but, well, I’m never going on the Squid on a full stomach ever again.”

“Oh man, thanks, Chet! You’re a life saver!” Jackie breathlessly sighed in relief, holding out her hand for the broadly built young man to deposit the necklace. “Ah great, the clasp broke. I’m gonna have to get it replaced.”

“Hey, no problem,” he replied with a smile, turning to Star before he departed. “Oh, hey, Star! Tell Marco I said hi.”

Star’s cordial smile dropped into a sharp gasp as both she and Jackie realized they had forgotten all about their friend and his now futile rescue mission. “Oh no, Marco!”

The two girls snapped back to the handrail and thankfully found the young man’s head bobbing nonchalantly in the late afternoon tide, his expression dull and draped with sopping wet hair as his body hung limply upright in the ocean. “Hey Marco!” Star called out casually, to the waterlogged young man. “We found Jackie’s necklace.”

Marco took the news without much enthusiasm, though mainly out of disappointment in himself. “Yeah, false alarm, it was just a hamburger wrapper.” He smacked his lips haplessly.

“Oh, yeah, well, thanks anyway.” Jackie acknowledged the boy’s effort, but the boy remained quiet, even as the rocking of the water’s surface grew stronger.

“So,” Star began, “Do you need help getting out of there?”

“Please.” Marco simply answered.

“BLACK LICORICE RESCUE ROPE!” Star gleefully exclaimed as she lashed her wand over the edge of the boardwalk, conjuring forward a dark, sugary tendril to ensnare Marco.

A shocked expression livened up Marco’s glum face as he found himself soaring upward through the air like a fish being reeled in and flipped over the gate, tumbling overhead and landing gracelessly on his tail bone. Feeling obliged, Jackie offered Marco a pair of hands to help pull him back to his feet, “Here, let me help you up...”

Salt water trickled down from every edge of his body and darkened, drenched clothes clung heavily to his vulnerable skin, but he still managed to conjure forth an appreciative smile in return for the kind gesture. “Here, uh, let me help you dry off.” Star coaxed, hoping to make up for the not so happy landing, “CHERRY BLOSSOM HURRICANE BLAST!”

Jackie had enough time to hop out of the way, but before the disoriented Marco could politely decline, he once again felt a full jet stream of air threaten to peel the soft flesh from his face and further chill his body as the droplets of water all over him slowly crawled away from the blast of wind. After a few seconds, the torrent ended and Marco’s form lunged forward slightly, the tension he used to keep his footing had nothing holding him back. His slightly overgrown hair stood up in a static ridden coif and his eyes stung from the pink petal tinged blast of air, both of which Star seemed unaware of when she came forward to rate her handiwork. The princess inserted herself within only a few inches of Marco’s still bewildered face and with a contrasting look of bliss thrusted her nose further into the boy’s personal bubble with a few sniffs. “Hmm, cherries…” she sighed while taking in the scent, completely unaware of the judgmental look Jackie had for her display.

With the boy showing no resistance, she dabbed her hand against Marco’s still damp shoulder before narrowing her eyelids judgmentally. “Ergh, it never gets it all the way dry. Oh well, let’s give it another go!”

Star lifted her wand to repeat the process, but Marco, now at a closer range, quickly objected, “Star! It’s fine, I… I can take care of myself.”

The young man strafed around the girl until he was separated from his two friends and made a few more steps behind him, hands raised defensively. “I’m just going to go find a bathroom and dry off.” He forced a casual laugh before his voice dropped to a more forceful tone. “The boy’s room.”

With that implication, Marco turned his hunched, sodden form away from Star and strode away into the jovial crowds of the Possum festival. The boy’s harsh tone and rapid escape weren’t lost on her, but she Star thought to call after him, anyway, “Marco! I don’t mind if you’re soggy! Don’t leave! We still have tons of vaguely possum-related activities to enjoy!”

Star’s words got lost in the slowly advancing crowd and the two girls soon found themselves short one party member, much to princess’s disappointment. “We were having so much fun, I don’t know what got into him…” Star muttered aloud, going over the day’s activities in her head.

Try as she may, Jackie couldn’t help but snidely answer, “I have a few ideas…”

While she probably could have offered the same conclusion, Star filtered out the passive aggressive comment, “He’ll be back in a little bit,” she grinned unconvincingly, “Come on! There’s some shops over here we can check out!”

In spite of her irritation with Star’s overbearing behavior, Jackie silently tagged along, hoping that with the target of her affections away from the moment, the girl would return to something bearing a semblance to the bubbly girl whose company enjoyed. Also, one of the stands Star mentioned was a purveyor of costume jewelry priced just in the right range for the several impulse shoppers that passed by on a daily basis, and the perfect place to get a new string for her necklace. Jackie broke off from her friend to do just this while Star lingered back around the corner of the booth, finally alone with her manic thoughts. “Okay, Marco’s a bit overwhelmed, but we can work around this,” Star coaxed herself after the young man’s abrupt exit, knowing exactly where the problem lay. “Marco’s just confused, his date with the girl of his dreams didn’t pan out the way he wanted, and now his beautiful, fun-loving adventurous friend is putting the moves on him while said girl is standing right there bringing up all sorts of unresolved feelings. It’s a veritable hotbed of emotions!”

Whether or not there was any merit to Star’s theory, she could at least confidently tell herself that Jackie’s presence was the one complication in her long-running plan to get Marco to see her as more than just her adventure buddy. She peaked around her corner to monitor her rival’s purchase of a rather gaudy plastic necklace, which she then promptly stripped of its red and orange plastic beads to reveal the black elastic band underneath, “I don’t know how you manage to keep Marco wrapped around your little pinkie, my money’s on dark magic, but once I get him all to myself, it’s over. But how?”

Star scanned the remaining attractions provided by the boardwalk for an idea and only found one when she took her search as high as possible. Laid against the late afternoon skyline, the local Ferris Wheel completed yet another lumbering turn, its baskets rocking gently in their circular paths as they offered their passengers a peaceful view of the nearby ocean. Star immediately contrasted the relaxing, casual gait of the ride to their last disastrous ride, and the romantic implications such a scenario provided on pretty much played itself out in her pubescent mind, ‘Perfect! I find Marco, apologize for Jackie making him jump into the ocean, and we take a ride on the Ferris Wheel! It’ll be the perfect opportunity to get him to loosen up, and he’ll be putty in my hand.’

Star let out another devilish cackle as she furtively snuck away from the booth, heading off into the last direction she saw Marco leaving in hopes of a reunion. “Ah… got it!” Jackie triumphantly cackled to herself after the nerve racking task of threading metallic clasp of her new band through the narrow loop atop her orange seashell pendant.

The emblem cleanly slid down the length of the black strand as she pulled both ends around to the back of her head and fastened it behind her neck, then using her fingers to pull her hair up and over the necklace as it settled on her shoulders. “So, Star, find anything cool?” She absentmindedly asked as she strolled to the adjacent stand where the two of them broke off. “Star?”

She repeated the girl’s name a few more times as she checked the other stalls in the immediate area, none of which bore the heart-cheeked girl, and she immediately regretted taking her eyes off of the girl.

“Marco! Marco!” Star called out with a melodic trill during her walk down the boardwalk.

Enough time had passed, Star assumed, for the young man to sufficiently dry himself off in the bathroom, were that truly his only endeavor, thus she thought it wise to actively look for him. Part of her knew he would make himself hard to find after their last meeting, but the other part convinced herself that Marco was still her close friend and that he wouldn’t be as callous as to abandon both her and Jackie. For the moment, she continued her search for the teenager and thought the best place to start was the dense crowd currently forming of to the side of the main walkway, an area where one who wished to not be found could easily lose them self. The girl slid her slender form between two towering figures into the throng of guests and was immediately taken aback by what stood in front of her. Her line of vision was dominated by a swath of mangy grey fur standing about as tall as one of Ludo’s former minions, and as if on cue it turned around to reveal the aloof face of a resident of Echo Creek glaring at her from underneath the hood of his cloak, taking the form of a jaw of a rodent clamping down on his head. “Eh heh, hey…” She began cautiously, “Have… you seen a boy about this tall, brown hair, brown eyes…”

The lumbering figure shrugged his shoulders before turning back around and continuing his steady march forward. Soon he was joined by a small procession of other citizens bearing similarly slapdash disguises, or banners adorned with the crude image of a possum of honor identified only as Otis, all heading in the same direction with somber single-mindedness. Star began to feel a bit put off by the outlandish, shared mindset common amongst all the attendees, none of whom responded as she repeated her question as they congregated around a small enclosure obscured by a tight cluster of bodies. She obviously had more questions, but thankfully the pageant of oddities was broken up by the arrival of a thankfully familiar face. “Hey, Star! Come for the main event?” Janna greeted her with a wry laugh, unsurprisingly having dark intentions.

“Oh, Janna, am I glad to see you!” Star breathlessly celebrated, taking a moment to embrace her close friend. “Do you have any idea what’s going on with these weirdos? And more importantly, have you seen, Marco?”

The girl gave an apathetic shrug before sighing, “Nah, Marco’s been a bit dodgy lately. Plus, today, I’m all about the Otis Call.”

“The… what?” Star arched an eyebrow in confusion, to which Janna waved a hand and led her to a tiny crevice between two grown men standing around a chest high wall.

On the other side of the barricade, Star saw a simple ground level enclosure litter with scraps of hey, a water dish and other bare necessities to give the lot the bare minimum of a homey appearance for a small animal placed within. More importantly, the circumference of the ring was populated with the same costumed individuals she saw congregating just moments earlier, their glazed eyes now ignited with anticipation. That eagerness rolled over into a frenzy of hoots and whistles upon the arrival of a middle aged man dressed in the garb of an 18th-century settler, complete with buckled hat and beige overcoat, toting a small carrier clutched in his hands. “OTIS! OTIS! OTIS!” They chanted in unison, pounding their balled fists on the fence in thunderous unison.

“So… is this Otis some sort of deity or…” Star curiously asked Janna.

Janna responded with a mere shush, as the gift bearing man brandished a microphone and began his speech. “Ladies and Gentlemen of Echo Creek! As your mayor, it brings me great pleasure to act as curator of the 72nd annual Otis Call!” he paused for the customary uptick in cheers before continuing, “In the year 1843, when the lands were wild, expansive terrains braved by mighty pioneers, it was a simple possum who led our ancestors to the land that would soon be known as…”

Not in the mood for an impromptu history lesson, the crowd grew unruly, “Give us Otis… Get on with it… Get to the good part!”

“Put in your dues with the small town yokels, Martin… It’s the quickest path to a congressional seat…” the beleaguered politician muttered to himself, before putting a patronizing smile back on few the rambunctious crowd. “Well, without further ado, here is the possum of the hour, the one you’re all dying to see… OTIS!”  
The cries from the audience rose to an even higher pitch as the mayor lowered his carrier into the enclosure and unlatched the front gate. He gently lifted the rear of the crate off the ground and out of the front slid the pink, elongated nose of the famed possum, followed by a pair of small paws furiously scurrying in the air to steady itself on the earth. The rest of its body fell out of the container with a soft thump and the rodent rose to all fours and took in the crowd of his clamoring admirers, hunching his back and darting its wide, dark eyes back and forth. “The rules for the Otis Call are the same as always: whoever Otis chooses wins a special prize! Good luck to all of you, (you uncultured swine).”

The mayor made his less than gracious exit, but all focus immediately shifted to Otis. “So, you came out here to try to win a prize from a gift bearing possum?” Star asked once more.

Janna had remained silent and still as a statue up to this point, a far cry from the other attendees, but broke it for her close friend. “Nah, dude, I came as a spectator!” She then gestured to the colorful crowd around her, whom Star then took in as the very presence of Otis whipped the crowd into a ritualistic frenzy.

“Otis is going to choose me this year, I can feel it!” declared the man Star met earlier, confident he could charm the creature in his clever disguise.

“Not if my flawless possum mating call has anything to do with it!” Another man shot him down, then demonstrating with a series of strained snarls.

Both of their claims did little to shake the distant gaze of the elderly man standing immediately next to them, his clothes covered in dark patches and wispy grey hair clumped together with a sticky substance. “Haha! I’ve been bathing in honey and bacon grease for months! Woo hoo!”

“Otis doesn’t like bacon!” the possum caller was quick to shoot him down, but the old man only responded with a confused look.

“Who’s Otis?”

These three, Star noted, where the more comprehensible contestants as the rest of the ring around her and Janna had quickly devolved into an amphitheater of hollering and pleading directed at Otis, waving banners bearing his likeness, leaning as far as possible over the fence to kindly wave him in, or even shining all manner of lights and laser pointers into his enclosure. Try as they may, the awkward mammal was not having any of it and managed to shirk its length even further, tucking its paws underneath its rib cage and planting its maw against the ground as it pathetically gazed at its comparatively towering gang of predators. This feeble gesture only further encouraged its ravenous suitors, which included some of Star’s classmates much to her surprise. “Come on, Otis! Come on!” and bubbly brunette cheered in a saccharine voice while bouncing on the balls of her feet, but it only caught the attention of a raven haired girl to her right.

“Otis wants me, you little hussy!” She hissed, knocking the handmade sign out of her grip in annoyance.

The other girl responded with a flurry of half-hearted slaps, which soon escalated into a full-on brawl between the two, Star wincing in response. “Wow, I didn’t know Britney had a headlock like that…” she despondently observed the crass display.

“Yeah, I swear, this makes the whole Possum Day festival worth it!” Janna darkly snorted, “I mean, a bunch of people making utter fools of themselves just to try to impress a hapless animal who totally isn’t having it? That’s what I call high quality entertainment!”

“Heh, yeah, totally,” Star falsely agreed, instead turning her attention to the poor rodent in the center of it all, who had no real say in the matter or any idea why it was receiving so much unwanted attention.  
***   
Marco exited in the stall in the public restroom not a moment too soon. No amount of paper towels or the tepid breath of the hand driers were able to get his clothes agreeably dry, thus the boy eventually buckled down and sought new clothes from the plethora of egregiously priced booths set up on the boardwalk. Wanting to get out of his soggy regalia as soon as possible, he settled for a pair of swim trunks to replace both his jeans and undergarments, and for a top he got the first shirt available to him, a novelty shirt made specifically for the event depicting a cartoon rodent with bold typeface declaring “THIS IS WHAT POSSUM LOOKS LIKE!”. His regrettable clothes aside, Marco figured he needed to reunite with his friends, if not only to make up for how he had left things off. His first prolonged interaction with Jackie after his failure of a date was obviously going to be uncomfortable and Star’s insistence on being the center of attention only put more perceived pressure on him, but deep down he knew this was no excuse to lash out at his best friend for costing him something that by all accounts he had already lost. Thus, he sought his roommate first and foremost, though after just a few steps, he came across a large crowd of encircled around something that had them clamoring so loudly he recalled hearing their muffled cries from when he was changing. Marco would normally avoid such a boorish spectacle, but with such a large gathering, he reasoned there was a chance that Star may have been attracted to whatever had enraptured the rest of the crowd, so this would be where he started his search. He opted to fill in gap right at the front of the gate, stepping over two members of the Echo Creek High cheer team currently entangled in a petty squabble, in hopes of getting a view of the rest of the crowd head on. “Star?” he called out, only to have his voice drowned out amidst the bellowing around him.

The meek boy never did well in loud, crowded areas, hence why he hesitated to join Star earlier that day, and immediately shirked at the audio assault ricocheting about the small enclosure, halting his search for his friend momentarily. Eyes locked in one direction out of shock, he finally came across this Otis creature he had heard so much about who seemed to appreciate the attention even less. The small possum had tightened its form even further into a fetal position and rapidly trembled in place as it waited for its assumed predators to grow tired and pursue other targets, a signal that the crowd ignored entirely and only grew more aggressive, waving banners harder, yelling louder, leaning over the rickety gate and rocking it under their added weight. Otis’ instinct’s kicked in once more and it sought a path of escape, but just like last time, there were no breaks in its tall, imposing walls, no soft ground to burrow into and hide, no chance to escape. There was, however, an oddity in the mix of rowdy admirer’s cackling hecklers, and baffled looks in the crowd, a smaller human with deep brown eyes offering a glint of sympathy at the bizarre display, whose huddled form offered no immediate threat. Testing the waters, Otis returned his gaze with its own pair of dark, beady pools and Marco eventually snapped out of his own mind and got the message. Figuring out the point of this display from the constant barrage of noise, the young man gently tapped the inside of his portion of the gate and gently cooed, “Come on, here boy…”

Slowly but surely, Otis began to uncurl from its fetal position and dragged its form across the wood chips to the edge of the gate. The crowd roared in objection in one last plea, but he paid no heed to them as he continued on towards the brown haired young man. “Star, look!” Janna called out.

The blonde girl broke out of her stupor to see that Otis had made his decision and, following his trajectory, spotted none other than Marco expertly coaxing the small rodent to his position: no outlandish outfits, no mating calls, no traps, just the boy’s own good nature and a little kindness. Otis reached the perimeter and began to claw the top of the wooden gate, giving the teen a rather personal look of the creature’s whiskers and small teeth. It was a bit of a shock, but Marco soon recovered as Otis began nudging his head against the fence, begging for a gentle embrace, “Um, good boy…”

The small creature grew more affectionate as Marco indulged him with a few strokes of his head while his previous suitors left the challenge in shame. “Heh, you’re a sweet little guy, potential diseases aside.”

With the crowd thinning out, the mayor felt it safe to come back to center stage, “Well it seems we have a winner! Mr…”

“Marco Diaz,” Marco filled in the blank.

“Well, as winner of the Otis Call, Marco Diaz has earned himself two…”

“Ow! My finger!” Marco yelped as the playful possum got a bit too comfortable with him and lovingly nibbled his hand.

“…Four tickets to see the international sensation Love Sentence at the Echo Creek Auditorium next month!” 

With that, the mayor silently gestured for Marco to accompany him back stage where he could fill out the order form where his winnings would be mailed, leaving the once lively arena bear with the exception of a Star and Janna, still lingering for their friend. “Star, there you are!” Star turned to be greeted by Jackie’s form jogging up to the wooden fence with a somewhat relieved look on her face. “I was looking all over for you. Any sign of Marco?”

“Oh, yeah, we found him. See? Right over there.” Star sighed, pointing out to the young man as he claimed his prize.

A lifelong Echo Creek native, Jackie recognized all the signs of the Otis Call and snorted, “Ah, man, don’t tell me Marco actually won that contest. What did he do?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing really…” Star vouched for her friend, “Just being himself, his dorky, lovable self…”

Janna ignored the desponded tone in Star’s voice as she interjected bitterly, “Yeah, it was a bit anti-climactic if you ask me. I was hoping someone would at least catch on fire, but I guess three years in a row is asking a bit much.”

Right on time, a throaty scream echoed from across the pier and the three young women turned to find one of the elderly Otis Callers scurrying up the side of a t-shirt stand, much to its proprietor’s chagrin. At its base, a dog barked incessantly at the nose-teasing scent of honey and bacon fat, barely held in place by her elderly owner, “Willowby, no! We talked about this!”

“You girls stay here; I want to see how this plays out…” Janna announced with a malevolent grin before taking her leave.

With just the two of them, Jackie noted the still distant look on Star’s face and sought to bring her back to Earth, “Come on, let’s go congratulate Marco!”

Given the young woman’s behavior all day, Jackie thought this would immediately energize the princess, but she only continued to loiter, biting the bottom of her lip and a rolling her eyes in indecision. “Oh, yeah, um… I can’t…” She eventually spat out, again raising her friend’s suspicions. “I just remembered, I have magic lessons with Glossaryck tonight, and, well, he really doesn’t like being forced to wait.”

“Really?” Jackie asked, unable to keep from raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’ve got to get going, just tell Marco I went home.” Star insisted, putting on a slapdash smile and gracefully maneuvering around the other girl.

Jackie’s doubts only grew as Star made her way slowly down the boardwalk, legs shuffling sullenly and her arms crossing over her ribs to protect against the chill of the late afternoon breeze rolling off the ocean. The princess was too proud, or possibly too embarrassed, to acknowledge defeat after the day’s events, and while this led to her being crowned victor, she couldn’t quite enjoy her victory, irritation with the girl’s antics giving way to a wave of pity when she remembered the girl’s carefree pining in contrast to her dejected attitude upon forfeiting. At the same time, though, this took down the one major roadblock keeping Jackie from confronting her own feelings for Marco, and with the boy just feet away, she took a breath and waited for him to make the first move. “What happened to Star?” Marco opened, seeing the two’s last conversation but not hearing a word.

“She… needed to get back home. Something about magic training.” Jackie fibbed, deciding to help her friend keep her dignity before changing the subject, “So, I hear you’re a champion possum trainer now!”

Marco stroked the back of his head, not sure whether he should take pride in the title, but kept up a confident air. “Yeah, I got tickets to see some boy band called Love Sentence next month.” He explained indifferently, eyes veering off to one side before trailing back to Jackie cautiously. “You know, I’m not really a fan, but if you wanted to go… I have three other tickets, and I think I could manage…”

Jackie immediately let Marco know that she saw through his act with a wry smile, “Dude, I saw the Justin Towers trading card on your pin board when I dumped my dolphin in your room. You don’t have to hide it.”  
“Okay, Star got me into them,” Marco sputtered after Jackie knocked the wind out of his sails, but she still wasn’t convinced and stayed silent. 

“Okay, I’ve been a fan of them for three years…” Marco continued. “The card came from my fan club membership.”

Jackie let out a soft giggle, holding it a bit longer than necessary. There was just something about Marco’s flustered look that she found cute. “Hey, relax man, we all have our guilty pleasures, and I think I can put up with yours for one night.”

Marco perked up at this implication with a swell of new confidence, again warming up Jackie for a brief moment. “Really? You want to come along? I mean, like a… date?”

Jackie sadly wasn’t ready to answer the question, if only due to the technicalities of the term “date”, namely that the parties involved be somehow related. Memories of their conversation from the beginning of the day came back and she knew that with Star’s abrupt exit, she should carry on from where she left off. “Look, Marco, about earlier, and how I’ve been thinking about us, and where we’re going,” Jackie began, and Marco grew cautious once more when she saw the girl’s apprehensive look, staying on guard for what she had to say, “Well there was one thing that was holding me back, that I needed to know for sure. It’s about you and Star.”

“What about her?” Marco instantly kicked himself for obfuscating naivety. Numerous acquaintances, enemies and family members even have made the same assumption about his relationship with Star, thus he found it understandable that Jackie would have had the same misconception. Still, it burned him inside that his close friendship with the girl, one that he valued like few other things in this world, would cost him his chance with what he wanted just as much.

Jackie thankfully wasn’t agitated by his defensive stance, but took her frustration internally, shaking her head in one hand, “I know, I know, I sound like a jealous girlfriend waiting to happen, but I just can’t help but notice that, the two of you are so comfortable around each other. It’s like when you were at the cemetery, you seemed so in sync, whereas around me, you can barely get a word out. And I get it, Star’s this princess from another dimension and you go on all sorts of adventures, risking your lives for each other. Sometimes I just feel like…”

The young girl turned about multiple times in the midst of her rant, each run-on and doubt whipping her hair out of place and seeing the return of her earlier disheveled form from earlier that day. Marco felt guilty for setting her down that path with his non-answer and sought to stop things in their path, “Like Star is this literal, out-of-this world presence.”

“Exactly!” Jackie exclaimed, glad to let Marco take control of the conversation and prevent her from letting lose any more insecurities. However, once she had a chance to go over the sentence on her own, she found herself in no better a position. “I mean, I figured why would you want the girl next door anymore when you have so much more?”

Marco gritted his teeth as he hit his second strike, Jackie’s countenance deflating with one last pass of her hand through her hair and exposing a series of pins and needles she had piercing the length of her ear. “Jackie that’s not what I meant! I mean, I know it sounds cliché, but Star’s just my friend, and I never want you to feel like she’s replacing you.”  
Jackie processed the kind words, but they didn’t do much for her, “But… you’ve only known her for what, like a few months, and you two are as thick as thieves. That seems pretty close.”

“Look, Jackie,” Marco struggled to find the right words to describe his relationship with the wild girl from another dimension, to help save face with the girl of his dreams. “I know you’re sick of hearing it by now, but the reason it took me so long to talk to you is because I was always afraid I’d do or say something stupid and you would never want to talk to me again. With Star, though, it’s different. She literally dropped into my life and moved into my house, and within 12 hours of meeting her, we were fighting for our lives against Ludo’s monsters. I never had to worry about making a fool of myself because I knew that no matter what happens, she’ll still be there for me, wanting to go on another adventure, or grab some nachos. And the thing is, I just don’t have that kind of clout with you, and I guess that’s what makes it so hard to be around you.”

Marco took paused for a breath and to check in on Jackie, who he was semi-grateful noticed was still paying him attention. “That’s what I meant about Star. I mean, yeah we’re close, but that’s because we’ve been through so much with each other, and honestly I just wish I could do something of that magnitude with you. I mean, when have I ever had the opportunity to fight off an army of zombies for you, or save you from your arch nemesis? It’s why I stole Star’s scissors last week for our date. I thought that I needed to prove that I actually deserve you, that you won’t just see me as some dork anymore.”

With that, Marco put his soliloquy to an end with another, somewhat content sigh. As earlier, he promised himself he would accept any decision she made, and having spilled his guts on a platter and presented it to the girl, he could at least look back on this moment and say he didn’t do everything he could to preserve his ties to the girl. He closed his eyes, unintentionally pushing the dramatic effect over the edge, and to his mix of shock and relief, he heard a merry snort from the other party. Eyes shooting open, he was blessed with another one of Jackie’s toothy grins, one specifically designed to raise a friend’s spirits, “Dude, you are your own worst critic. Look, do you know why I’ve been tagging along with you and Star recently, or why I’ve been willing to give a “dork” like you a chance?”

Marco gave a cautious pause, not wanting to seem too pathetic or too over confident, “Why?”

“Because you’ve been making an effort. Heck, you did a jack knife off the pier just because I freaked over losing my necklace. That’s more than I could say about the Marco from a few months ago, and honestly, with all that considered…” Jackie bit the bottom of her lip before taking the plunge, “I think I’d be willing to give this a shot.”

Marco’s eyes dilated while his brain struggled to process this information, never mind how long he spent fantasizing about this moment all his adolescence. “So wait, you mean we’re…” He stuttered, needed confirmation from the girl herself.

“Think of it more as a trial run.” Jackie clarified. There were other factors that she needed to be worked out before she made her final decision, such as whether the boy would continue his streak of good behavior without sliding back into self-pity, or whether a certain blonde haired girl could cope with the shake-up in their relationship. In fact, the last state she saw Star in weighed the heaviest on her mind in that moment, as she thought back to more innocent times last Monday afternoon, and the dark shadow now looming over it now that a clear winner had been won.

Marco, though, was blissfully ignorant of these complications and set all his mental faculties on keeping the girl in high spirits. He scanned the surrounding area for anything that could brighten the girl’s still unsure demeanor before a boyish smile settled on his lips. “So,” he hummed, getting her attention, “How about a ride on the Ferris Wheel. By the time we get to the front of the line, it should be just about sunset.”

The boy’s eagerness brought Jackie back to reality, glad that her words had some impact. Still, she saw no reason not to have a little fun with him. “Oh, I see what you’re doing, Diaz. Two young teenagers suspended in the air, no one looking, the sun slowly sinking into the water.” 

Jackie slunk closer and closer to her friend as she painted the mental picture, but to her surprise, the boy didn’t falter or regress to his more comfortable bundle of nerves at the approaching, compromising situation. Instead, what little agitation he had focused into another sly chuckle attempting to mirror her coy attitude. “Hey, I thought you liked a guy who tried?” he joked, the slight warble to his voice letting her know he had no ulterior motives, only wanting to end the day on a pleasing note to cancel out all the unexpected craziness.

“You’re right. I do.”

To prove her point, Jackie sprang to the tips of her toes and landed her lips strategically on the far side of Marco’s cheek, colliding with a soft smack. As to be expected, the sudden exchange left the boy in a brief catatonic state despite years of planning the moment out in his head. Jackie rolled her eyes in good jest and tugged on his hand in an effort to remind him of their plans, and Marco complied. They began their way to the Ferris Wheel, down the boardwalk and past the back of a blonde, ponytailed girl who watched their movements into the horizon, hand in hand. She could only muster the strength to watch them for a few moments before her head whipped back to the concession stand she stood in front of, knees locking tight in place as she went over all the times she went wrong that afternoon, and what she had just given up. “What will it be, Miss?” the kind-hearted proprietor asked, taking her mind off her troubles for a moment.

“I hear you make a mean deep-fried candy bar…” Star ultimately answered in a raspy, defeated voice.

With that, Star gave the clerk a freshly minted Mewni doubloon and he turned back to his station at the fryer, giving Star another opportunity to woefully turn back to the Ferris Wheel looming over the boardwalk. “Just take good care of the boy, Jackie. That’s all I ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long, a combination of burnout with the fandom and work prevented me from writing as much as I would have liked. I wished I could say that the wait would be worth it, but again I feel this chapter is a bit lacking. I'm happy with it overall and it had some parts I had a lot of fun planning out, but I just think it feels fragmented by virtue of design; basically, this chapter isn't so much a character driven romance nor does it have an action scene, but is rather just a string of comedic vignettes that ultimately lead to a big emotional revelation. Still, it's a revelation that finally gets the story going, and I'm glad it happened this way, so, again, I hoped you enjoyed it!


	8. Booking It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glossaryck sends Star on a quest to find an ancient book on magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry again about the recent hiatus (joke about how "Star Vs." fans should be used to it by now, ha ha), but here's another chapter. Again, making the wait even worse, it's a bit shorter than my usual fair, but I like to think of it as leaner and more focused on action. Plus, more info on the ongoing myth arc! Yay continuity!

“Come now, Moon. You’re being silly…” The queen of Mewni told herself, but it didn’t sound convincing in the slightest.

The other attendants of the Magical Archives had long ago retired for the night, but Moon still found herself deep within the storage facilities, gazing into the unhinged treasure chest and its macabre contents. With one last breath to calm her nerves, she closed her eyes and focused her will onto the discolored green gem grasped in the wand just as Glossaryck had taught her years ago until she felt a strange rush course through her very soul. When she opened her eyes again, the near infinite rows and cabinets of the treasure room had peeled away, leaving in its wake a dark void. The only available light, regrettably, came from the tapestry like trail of sickly green vapor that weaved its way through the space above her, an uneasy spiral leading upwards to what would be a ceiling of this metaphysical plane, marked with a glass panel in the shape of half a star. Steeling her nerves, Moon glided upwards, again no longer limited by a mortal form, along the path the dark magic set for her.

The symbol in the sky seemed just as distant no matter how long Moon’s representation within the wand rose through the green mist, and still she found nothing, no personifications of spells, no reflections of its wielder’s past life, nothing. Granted, she felt this was to be expected, given the bizarre nature of the wand’s creation, and quite frankly, given who was responsible for the weapon’s birth, she was almost grateful she was not offered a look into their craven mind. This flight of fancy, though, was sadly interrupted when something passed the corner of her eye. Some immeasurable distance above her starting point, the spiral of green energy dramatically tapered into a tight loop, and the sight of the figure caught in the knot stopped the Queen of Mewni dead in her tracks.

To be fair, though, it’s not every day you see the man who killed your mother.

“Toffee…” Moon could only muster, hovering slack-jawed in front of the lizard’s limp body, held in place by the weaves that incased his torso in a series of neon green pin stripes.

It was long believed by both the Magic High Commission and the Mewni military that the monster chieftain abandoned his rebellion after a humiliating confrontation with the newly appointed Queen several years ago cost him a finger, an undisclosed school of magic having nullified the healing factor that made him such a threat. However, recent developments led Moon to believe that the creature had made himself busy in that time, somehow having inserted himself into Ludo’s circle of influence and learning of the infamous Sleeping Spell capable of destroying the Butterfly family’s prized wand. Steadying herself with another deep breath, she slowly drifted towards Toffee, and the lack of a response helped her put back on an authoritative air, “Alright, Toffee. I don’t think there’s any need for pleasantries. Just tell me what exactly what you were planning.”

Still, the lizard remained silent, his elongated muzzle pointed at what qualified as the ground in this dimension. “Defiant to the end, eh?” With the very stability of her kingdom in jeopardy, Moon had no time for sanctimony and cupped the base of Toffee’s jaw to strictly tug his head up so that he could meet her old nemesis eye to eye, thought there was one complication.

Moon’s frustrated countenance lost its edge when she looked at the creature’s eyes and only saw a pair of black pools, just as dark and devoid of movement as the interior of the wand around them. When she let her impulsive grip go, the creatures bottom jaw slowly unhinged into a silent, mournful wail to complete the lifeless appearance. Moon quickly flitted away at the sight of the limp body and tried to process what this meant in terms of magical projections. According to Star’s account a few days ago, a finger remaining from Toffee, which she acquired from within her own wand, attempted to reunite with the very wand she currently dwelled inside of, which meant that the lizard’s soul had been divided amongst both forms, his consciousness in the former and, apparently, his physical form in the latter. However, Ludo had told her that her wand had been advising him over the last several months, telling him how to construct ancient magical constructs and how to subvert the Mewni army’s greatest advantage. Given Toffee’s own experience with magic and how long he had been disappeared, it would make sense that he would have researched this subject and then laid low, perhaps acting through a pawn until the time came that he could strike his vulnerable enemies. On the other hand, this testimony clearly contradicted with the lifeless form sitting before him. Moon wouldn’t put it past Ludo to lie to save his own skin, but at the same time it was unlikely the bullheaded avian creature had the forethought to research these topics on his own. She wasn’t even sure if he could read Mewman, honestly.

All these contradictions left Moon’s head whirling, and she ultimately decided that she could no longer expect to find answers within the wand, thus with a quick incantation, the world before her disappeared in a flash and she found herself back in the Magical Archives. All she could definitively say for the moment was that she would have to delay repairing the Butterfly family wand until a spell was found to exercise Toffee’s form from within, but even that would be postponed until further notice. She unlocked the door back to the main corridor, then resealed the storage facility once on the other side and sauntered to her main office a little further down the hall. It was late and all the royal wizards and their attendants had retired for the evening, with only Sean diligently taking his seat by the magic detector and granting her a customary wave. She soon found herself back in her office, which to little surprise, was kept impeccably tidy, with reams of alphabetized tomes lining the shelves, royal decrees ordered in incoming and outgoing, and all the furniture set perfectly parallel to the corners of the walls. The only thing that sat out of place was a garish, yellow plastic tube, something she could have made out from the porthole through her door as it stood against the calming blue and grey cobblestones of her office, on her main desk. It seemed, to Moon, that Heckapoo had kept her promise of getting her the schematics to the Magic Pump needed to clean up Ludo’s mess on her desk by the end of the day. Taking solace in the good news, Moon made a note to deliver them to the Contractor’s Guild first thing in the morning and levitated the plans to her hand from the doorway before locking the door behind her for the night. A wasteful use of Magic, sure, but Moon wanted to bring the long day’s activities to a close and was sure that if she set further foot into her office, she’d find something that would keep her there until dawn. 

Which worked perfectly for the figure camped out underneath her desk.

He praised his luck and cursed his far-too-close timing as he unfurled his medium sized body and reached for a pair of dimensional scissors in his pocket, conjuring forth a portal to the lava springs of the Lost Realm. He then reached back underneath the desk and withdrew a thick bundle of rolled parchments to carelessly roll off of his fingers into the unthinkably hot molten rock. Unbearably hot wind rushing against his face, his glowing green eyes proudly watched as the pristine drafting paper curled before succumbing to the flames and turning to lifeless ash, sinking forever into the rolling boil. Hopefully, his own plans would be a worthy replacement.

***

“You gonna eat those?”

Janna reflexively wrapped an arm around the plate of fish tacos in front of her. “Sorry, Star. These aren’t for you.” She kindly denied her blonde friend.

“Come on, Janna. You don’t even like seafood!” Star responded.

Janna regardless took a taco from her plate and rose it to shoulder level. “I didn’t get them for myself, I got them for Sky Slasher!”

With a flick of the brunette’s wrist, the deep fried tortilla and processed fish patty soared into the air, but before it could fall to the ground a deafening shriek cut through the air and a broadly built bald eagle flew over the table to chomp it out of the air. It then roosted on the bench next to its new owner where it received a loving ruffle of its crest before Janna tossed another taco into its maw. Star was less than enamored with this display, “I don’t think Britta’s allows pets, Janna.”

“Please, she’s an endangered species. They can’t do anything about it.” Janna scoffed in disregard.

“Uh-huh.” Star despondently nodded. “And what about the spider?”

“Emotional support animal.” Janna confidently explained, not even gazing behind to check on the massive arachnid lowering its thorax on the sun baked concrete.

She instead turned back to her sack of tortilla chips, with which she scraped the bottom of a plastic cup. “Ugh, they never give you enough queso,” she muttered to herself before surveying the tables around her. “Black Widow, 10 o’clock!”

Immediately perking up on cue, the sizeable spider shot out a thread of silk squarely at a cup of the sought after melted cheese, much to the shock of the table’s brown and red haired occupants. With a flick of the mandible, the vessel sailed through the air in an arc and Janna coolly snatched it with her free hand. Janna scooped up her ill-gotten cheese with a chip, but a weak sigh kept her from enjoying this small victory. The other side of the table offered the familiar sight of Star resting a malleable cheek in the palm of one hand as she stared idly at her placemat, and Janna had had quite enough of it. She adored the Star’s company, even considering it one of the few high points in this joyless mortal coil, but over the last two weeks she had noticed something of a cloud looming over the normally energetic princess. It cast a sullen mood over her, but then disappearing once she put on a smile and suggested they go grab a bite to eat, or catch a movie, or anything else that would keep the two of them away from home for a couple hours. “So, I take it Marco’s having his lady love over today?” Janna asked bluntly.

Star caught herself before the jab in the stomach made her cause a scene and drolly answered, “Yeah, he invited Jackie over to finish up their book reports.”

The blonde seemed content to leave it at that, but Janna was not content to leave the subject unresolved. “Look, Star. I know you like Marco, and I know you don’t want to complicate things, but you can’t avoid him forever.”  
“I’m not going to avoid Marco forever!” Star insisted, momentarily putting on an askew smile, “Just until he and Jackie graduate high school and move into a nice little duplex across from the university together!”

Janna had her doubts about this plan, but she felt she had a better solution. “Well, if you want to play the long game and keep drowning you sorrows in Sugarritos, fine, but I have something that might… move things along.”

Eyes shifting back and forth, Janna furtively withdrew a manila envelope from the backpack sitting next to her and slid it over the weathered wood of the outdoor table. Star quickly opened the parcel and her eyes flared open at their contents, “Jackie! How could you?”

Star didn’t know how else to react to the image before her, a bird’s eye shot of the boardwalk where, in the middle of the crowd, one Jackie Lynn Thomas could be seen walking hand-in-hand with an unidentified young man, the smile upon her face saying it all. A full gamut of emotions ran through her head at that moment, from anger, to sorrow for Marco, and finally, doubt. “Wait a minute!” Star collected her thoughts upon spotting a Possum Festival banner above one of the shops. “This is from Marco and Jackie’s first date. You just edited out Marco and replaced him with another guy!”

“Yeah, I’ve been able to get some great aerial shots with Sky Slasher.” Janna calmly answered, taking the accusation as a complement. “Anyway, I too have long been trying to work around the Jackie conundrum. Show him these, and the boy will be totally heart broken, and run back to you…”

Star, though, immediately crumpled the incriminating fakes into a ball and after the brief rush settled back into her rut of despair. “No. I love Marco, but I don’t want to force him into anything he doesn’t want. He chose Jackie, and nothing can change that…”

“Nothing…” Janna let her voice linger as her eyes deviously drew towards the overstuffed satchel hanging from Star’s shoulder.

Star immediately caught her implication and returned it with a defiant scowl, “Oh no, do not even think about it, Janna. Using magic to make people act against their will is a BIG no-no in Mewni. Although…”

Though she remained resolute in that regard, Star’s face softened in contemplation as another idea bubbled in her mind. She ripped the tome from her bag and cracked it open to find Glossaryck sitting crossed legged and dragging a finger across the text of his current page, oblivious to the comparatively larger girl looming over her shoulder. “GLOSSARYCK!” Star called to the small creature.

“No…” Glossaryck flatly answered.

“But…” Star sputtered dejectedly, “I didn’t even ask you yet.”

Glossaryck decided to be gracious this one time and turn to his pupil, sliding off his bifocals and letting them dangle from his neck on their thin golden chain. “Yes, well, despite what you may think, I can hear everything that goes on outside my book, and this definitely is not in my jurisdiction.” The blue imp bluntly outlined before turning back to his matter at hand.

“Come on!” Star pleaded. “I just need you to zap my crush on Marco out of my head, it’ll be quick!”

Offering a brief glimmer of hope, Glossaryck gazed skywards for a moment with a contemplative hum, but cut it off shortly. “Yeah, no, I don’t think Queen Moon would approve of me performing a magical lobotomy on her daughter.”

Star’s desperation manifested in a deep groan and her hands briefly tugging at her blonde tresses before she continued, “Glossaryck, please! This whole thing with Marco has been driving me crazy! I can’t concentrate on anything else without thinking about him and Jackie, I can’t sleep, and I’ve barely been able to talk to him for, like, a week now!”

“And let’s not get started on the stress eating…” Janna interjected slyly.

“Janna!” Star turned to her friend with an abrupt snarl at the snide comment and all the implications it carried.

Janna, though, felt the sight spoke for itself, “Hey! Polishing off a Gigante-Sized combination plate after school every day isn’t exactly going to help your chances with Marco.”

The critique force brought a pink tinge to Star’s cheeks as she remembered the hefty platter before her, now barren save for a smattering of refried beans and trace sprinkles of sugar. The girl had quickly taken to Earth food shortly after she arrived on her new home, offering much more variety than the corn-based diet she enjoyed on Mewni, and it was apparent that she had been leaning a bit harder on such pleasures for emotional support these past few weeks as her relationship with Marco felt threatened. Being an adolescent girl, she knew this approach would have consequences, and it had just recently started to take its toll on her figure, as shown by the tuft of seafoam green fabric that rolled ever so slightly over her waist as she sat down, or the pinching sensation the elastic of her stockings now inflicted on her thighs. Star had vainly hoped that her friends wouldn’t have noticed it, but now she had to fess up, “Alright, fine! I’ve gained like, 8 pounds this month, too! But it’s bigger than that! Look, you’ve said that negative emotions block my magic, so in a way, this is a problem you could help with.”

For once, Glossaryck had to admit that the girl had a point, though his own still stood. “Look, Star.” He turned to her once again, not like he was making any progress with his research. “Even if I did have a personal investment in your little boy problems, I’m far too busy to do anything about it. The Magical High Commission has been working around the clock to clean up Ludo’s little mess and I still have a mess of research to...”

He hoped to leave things there, but as the creature lectured his student, a thought crept into his mind. Helping Star with her relationship woes may have been beneath him, but it wouldn’t necessarily be hard compared to his other duties. “You know, I think we could actually make a compromise…” He began to rethink things.

“Go on…” Star laser focused on her instructor.

“Well, like I said, I’ve been doing some research into the Magical Dimension, but the spellbook doesn’t really go into it in great detail. All of the advanced chapters that remotely talk about it keep referring to a manuscript called ‘A Brief History of Magic’, and that’s where I think I’ll find what I need. If it’s anywhere, it should be located in the Great Underground Library of the Mahou Desert. I’d go myself, but…” Glossaryck gestured to his own diminutive frame and Star got the message.

“So you want me to find a book for you and then you’ll help me with Marco?” Star summarized, reaching back into her bag for her dimensional scissors in case she had things right.

“Exactomundo!” Glossaryck bluntly stated, grabbing the shears with a hand around each ring and slicing a rift in space time with the appropriate interdimensional coordinates.

On the other side, Star saw a charcoal grey cobblestone hallway and felt the cool breeze of the subterranean bunker funneling out into the late spring weather. Her objective set, the girl accepted Glossaryck’s terms with a nod and said her goodbyes, “Well, I’ll be back in a bit. Janna, make sure nothing bad happens to Glossaryck while I’m gone!”

Gathering her things, Star hopped into the portal and sealed it behind her, leaving her olive haired friend alone with the magical being. Turning to him, she asked, “So… know any good hexes?”

***

Star made her way down the barren hallway with a growing sense of trepidation. The massive limestone blocks that made up the walls and bore support under the several tons of sand between it and the surface gave her surroundings an imposing aesthetic that quickly suggested why Glossaryck was so eager to pass his responsibility on to her, but she pressed on. Her perseverance soon paid off as the high walls tapered into a vaulted arch way and on the other side found a much more inviting antechamber. Several upholstered chairs and tables were laid about the lobby for the comfort of patrons, if there were any, and in contrast to the empty walls of the corridor, the lobby was adorned with several posters for younger guests on the virtues of reading, and to Star’s amusement, a visage of her own mother bringing a pair of fingers to her lips, the captions dictating, “Please Be Quite. Your Queen Commands You.”

Below this portrait sat a squat, oak wood desk with a smattering of overdue books cluttering its surface, but more importantly a small silver bell with a sign advising visitors to tap it for assistance. Even though there were no employees to be found in the immediate vicinity, Star did just this and released an inviting high pitched chirp throughout the abandoned halls, hoping in vain it would summon some assistance. No one came, but Star still spoke. “Yeah, um, I’m looking for a book called ‘A Brief History of Magic’, or something. Supposed to be really old…”

The princess waited for a response from the non-existent librarian, and eventually accepted that she was on her own for the moment. “Guess I’ll have to look for it myself,” She sighed to herself as she made her way down yet another imposing walkway, this one with a wooden sign hanging over its entrance reading “Reference and Non-Fiction”.

Not too long after leaving the main lobby, Star froze in her tracks as she heard a low rumbling emanate through the spacious chamber, honed senses causing her body to stiffen with anticipation. There was no follow-up, and she wrote it off as a trick of her own imagination, set off by the anxiety that came from being alone in unfamiliar territory, so she continued on her way. With some sense of heading in the right direction, Star found this trek a bit easier than her initial descent into the seemingly abandoned library. Once again, the path opened up to her destination, which easily dwarfed the cozy sitting area she had just left; Star nearly strained her neck gazing up the far wall, with its four rows of gaping wide tunnels counting seven at the top, six below that, and continuing the pattern for the last pair for an even 26. Above each of these herculean caverns hung a modest wood carving depicting a letter of the alphabet, beginning with the letter “A” in the top left corner, just to her luck. It paled in comparison to the massive holes in the wall, but just to their left, a towering ladder stood erect, settled in a set of rolling tracks that ran between each row of tunnels, and Star mentally prepped herself for the arduous task of scaling it. 

It began simply enough, one step at a time, arms pulling herself up the wooden structure, but with the sheer height of her destination, the young girl soon felt her arms and legs tense from the repetitive motions to the point that she needed to take a respite once she reached the “N” row, the lack of solid ground beneath her the only incentive to press on. Her sore legs continued to push her up rung by rung as her arms clumsily reached for the next level, but she kept her eyes on the coveted giant “A” and kept on track until she reached the summit. There came the tricky task of swinging her body off the ladder and rotating herself onto the entryway, which in spite of her exhaustion, she managed to pull off. “Corn, I’m out of shape…” The blonde wheezed as she stuck out a hand to brace herself against the wall and grasp a horizontal wooden bar.

Star slowly turned her neck to the left and, sure enough, she came to face yet another rolling ladder propped against the imposing, four-level bookshelf that took up the left wall of the corridor, a sight that sent more pangs down her taxed calves. Luckily, though, the ladder stood only ten feet compared to the behemoth she had just conquered, and upon gathering her bearings, she scaled this obstacle too and eventually began her search for the elusive tome. “Let’s see, ‘A Brief History of Magic’…” Star muttered to herself as she leaned her weight to the side of the ladder so that she could scan the rows of spines, but to no avail.

She took a step down on the ladder to repeat the process, but still had no luck. “’A Brief History of Magic’… Aaaaaa, Brieeeef…” Star unconsciously repeated to herself until a stunning realization crept into her mind. “It’s under ‘B’ isn’t it?”

Star let out another pained sigh before she reached into her satchel and withdrew her family’s wand, conjuring forth an amethyst puff of a cloud near her feet. It’s face remained frozen in a carefree smile as Star callously stepped onto her fluffy steed and with a flick of her wrist she zipped out of the corridor and pulled a U-turn into the adjacent hallway, where she resumed her search in the same relative area. “Okay, let’s do this again.” She sighed, the stress of a dozen different grievances creeping into her voice as she sought to finish this little task.

Unfortunately, the book was still nowhere to be found, as the row of aged, crinkled papers skipped from “Beasts of Fantastical Nature and Their General Locations” to “Butterfly Family Archives: The Festivia Years”. Star collapsed into a sitting position atop Cloudy upon this failure, to which the magical entity only responded with a light guffaw. Honestly, she would not be losing any sleep that night if she disappointed Glossaryck with this one small task, nor did the amount of time wasted way too heavily on her. After all, the young woman had been looking for activities to distract her as of late, but now there was nothing left to do but to return to Britta’s Tacos empty handed. Star had just began to reach for her dimensional scissors when she heard a familiar rumbling ricocheting through the prodigious tunnel, this time powerful enough that the freestanding books in front of her gently rattled in place on the shelves. 

Her sensed heightened, she instinctively peered down the rest of the corridor and despite the lack of natural light could make out a flesh colored mound in the center of the dark void surging towards her. As it came closer, Star was able to make out what she could only describe as a tunnel within the tunnel, a tube of pulsing soft palette studded with jagged, ivory protrusions twitching intermittently as its seemingly indefinite length piled into the tunnel. Star instead reached for her wand and stomped her foot to order Cloudy to pull up into the upper left corner of the tunnel to avoid worm, and thankfully the eyeless, massive beast paid no mind as it barreled out of the aisle. Still, its girth left the princess very little wiggle room as it nearly clipped the book shelf with its scores of tentacles spaced evenly in crests around its circumference. Watching patiently for the length of the creature to end, Star spotted an aged, dark colored block wrapped in one of these feelers and, coinciding with her recent streak of luck, she could make out the words etched on its cover: “A Brief History of Magic”.

“Sure, why not?” Star sardonically spat out before urging cloudy to pursue the worm, eyes locked onto her prize.

Upon exiting the “A” hallway, the tube like creature descended from the wall of caverns in a wide arch aimed directly for a similar burrow in the center of the next chamber, walled off from customers by a chest high handrail and surrounded by tables and comfortable chairs. Before it could disappear into the ground, Star whipped her arm back and cried “STICKY HAND SWIPE!”

The gooey, magical appendage soared through the air and expertly connected with the book, but the return trip was more difficult than the spell-caster imagined. The worm let out a hoarse cry as it tugged back with enough force that Star nearly lost her bearings and tumbled off of Cloudy, but she stood strong and returned the tug of war. As the behemoth entered the subterranean tunnel, Star’s arms remained taught and she found herself more being taken for a ride by the sizeable beast than in hot pursuit under her own power. Realizing she couldn’t over power it, Star took one hand off her wand and took a direct grasp of the Stick Hand spell; with the other, she put her wand between her teeth and began to gradually scale the arm’s length, the worm ignorant of the comparatively weaker force still pulling on its appendage. Eventually, she was in arm’s length of the tome and, with all the daring she could muster, she seized the book with both hands, but was again matched by the pull of the worms arm. Hoping to get more leverage, she dispelled Cloudy back to the innards of her wand and her booted feet dropped onto the surface of the worm’s spongy hide, and she leaned her weight on the base of the offending tentacle as she attempted to pry to book once again. This only spurred another pained cry from its owner, who then summoned neighboring filaments to rid itself of its intruder. Star greeted them by taking her wand out of her mouth and, after wincing a bit when her hand came in contact with saliva, fired of a flurry of spells “NARWHAl BLAST! CUPCAKE BLAST!”

The volley of baked goods and aquatic life kept the wispy arms at bay quite effectively and gave Star an idea, one she would have regretted had she been in less dire straits. However, she noted she was reaching the end of the current tunnel and an attempt to get off this ride would soon be presenting itself. Wrapping her free arm around the book as tightly as possible in spite of the tentacle’s protests, she aimed her wand just a few inches from her toes and braced herself. “BUNNY RABBIT BLAST!”

One burst of rabbits and blinding yellow lasers later, Star found herself surging away from the beast, just as they returned to the main lobby of the library, recognizable by a few posters and lounge furniture. Star vaulted over the main desk gracelessly into a somersault, but to her relief, she still had the book in hand. Peering over the check on her pursuer, she found the creatures first few meters slumped over the return desk pathetically as it processed its newest wounds. “Oh yeah! Star wins! Check how I check out books!” she cheered in relief with a swirling of her hips and a raising of the roof.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!”

Star’s victory celebration, which had just reached the “It’s your birthday” phase, came to an abrupt halt as the girl turned to face a rather vexed, suspenders goblin marching around the corner of the main desk. His face was blocked by a visor and a pair of bifocals, but his body language suggested that he was none too pleased. “Yeah, well, I…” Star began, suddenly feeling a bit bashful. “I needed to check out a book, and I ran into a bit of a snag. By the way, you have a serious worm problem.”

Star motioned towards the great beast just now raising itself with a brief shake, but the small creature seemed no less accepting. “You… that worm was just doing its job! His kind created the underground tunnels that formed this library. Customers are supposed to stay here in the main lobby, and he brings the books back to you. Didn’t you read the signs!” The goblin explained.

Star merely turned an eye to the small sign by the bell on the reception desk reading “An Employee Will Be With You Shortly” before stating her case, “Yeah, well, who uses a giant worm to find books? I mean, aren’t librarians supposed to be like, little old ladies or something.”

The goblin didn’t take to kindly to this logic and broke off his tender nuzzling to address the girl with his familiar bluster, “Do you think I built a library underground, in the middle of the desert because I like being around people? No! I did it to get away from all those surface dwellers and their little jabs ‘Oh look, there goes Biblio with his books again’, ‘Haha, Biblio is such a nerd’. It was my lifelong dream to finally be alone with no one but my books.”

Another pained squeal resounded from the reference desk, and Biblio’s expression softened as he rushed over to the massive creature. “Oh, and you, of course. There, there, who’s my good little book worm…”

Star’s eyes wavered from the librarian as he gave his worm a loving nuzzle and it returned the gestured by lovingly lapping him with a barrage of tentacles. “So,” Star began, “You went through all of this just to avoid people.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I just said rephrased as a repressed character flaw I really need to work one.” Biblio broke his embrace to respond. “So, you need anything else.”

Eager to get back to Earth, Star picked her book back up and brought it to the front table. All things considered, Biblio lifted a wooden flap on the front table and took the copy of “A Brief History of Time” once on the other side, a smile coming to his face as he re-entered his element. “Library Card, please,” he asked professionally.

“My what?” Star responded, earning another frustrated sigh from the goblin on the other side.

***

“Okay, sign here… and here… initial here… date of birth… alternate names here… any dimensions you’ve been to or are planning to go to in the next 12 months…”

“Ugh! How much longer is this going to take!” Star slumped over the desk, seriously feeling a cramp settle into her hand from the past two hours of filling out forms.

“Hey, half the tomes in this library have the power to bring about the end of times! We need to be thorough!” Biblio answered defensively, “Besides, we’re almost done. Just need a thumb print mixed with a drop of your blood here.”

The librarian quickly drew a needle and pricked the young girl square in the center of the thumb. After wincing, the girl complied and pressed the digit against the final empty spot on the form. With that, Biblio neatly assembled the stack of forms and tapped the even before they disappeared into a flash of light, compressing into the shape of a small index card bearing the princess of Mewni’s signature grin and personal information. Biblio took the card back, but only to scan it indifferently before returning it clenched in the cover of Star’s checked out book. “Remember, it’s due back in two weeks!”

“Well, thanks!” Star quickly rummaged for her scissors and opened back the rift to Britta’s where she could officially end her quest, “Glossaryck! I got your…”

Star’s eyes settled back onto the booth she distinctly remembered having lunch at. Janna, who she clearly asked to watch fort while she was gone, was nowhere to be found, but thankfully, her mentor was still present. Less savory, was his current position, sprawled out no a small dessert plate with his tongue gliding over the ceramic surface with a passionate moan. “Eh… What exactly are you doing?” Star asked, attempting to be cordial.

“Flan…” Glossaryck answered dreamily as he rolled onto his back, having excavated the last of the gooey treat. “I may have been wrong about this dimension, I mean, if they were able to create such delicacies…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Star cut off his tangent, feeling there were more important matters at hand. “Where’s Janna?”

The blue imp’s eyes shot out of their glazed stupor as he attempted to recall the girl who gave him his beloved flan. “Oh, she left not long after you. Said it was, and I quote, ‘something she wouldn’t miss for the world’.”

“Seriously, Janna?” Star muttered under her breath. She felt that she probably should have made it more clear to the deviant girl that losing Glossaryck had been something of a sore spot for her since her last fight with Ludo, but ultimately decided it was her own fault for entrusting the girl in the first place. “Anyway, I got your book.”

Star unceremoniously dropped the dense manuscript onto the table with a dense thud, and Glossaryck summoned the energy to jump from his plate and ruffle through the first few pages. “A yes, this should do nicely. I hope it wasn’t too much of a problem.”

“A problem? Oh no, not at all!” Star chimed in with a bell like giggle, “Ya coulda told me about the giant worm, though.”

Glossaryck was far too busy skimming over the rest of the book to hear this aside and responded bluntly, “Well, per our agreement, I guess this means that I have to help you. Ergo, if we turn to…”

“Actually, Glossaryck,” Star cut the imp off. “I… don’t think that would be necessary.”

The blue imp gave Star his full attention to continue, sincerely surprised that she would turn down free help. “Really?” he wanted to make sure.

“Look, I realized that it isn’t practical to just keep ignoring Marco and Jackie like I’ve been doing this past week. I mean, they’re my friends, and all this pressure I’ve been going through this past week is stuff I’ve been putting on myself, so I think it might be best if I just…”

“Star… Star!” Marco’s voice resonated through the now sparsely populated dining area with a concerned pitch.

“OH NO IT’S MARCO! I CAN’T LET HIM SEE ME!” Star’s train of thought came to a crashing halt.

She attempted to scoop up her belongings and escaped, but only got as far as the library book before the teen cast a shadow over her in the setting sunlight and repeated his plea. “Star!”

Star immediately twirled around and put on an unassuming grin to greet her best friend. “Oh, Marco, hey, I was just uh, getting a bite to eat after school, and, wait, are you wearing eye liner?”

Marco’s face remained steadfast in spite of her friend’s typical ramblings and he continued. “Look, Star, I need your help…”

Noting the stressed look on her friend’s face and what “help” usually constituted regarding their friendship, Star was able to put her hang-ups aside and responding in a more controlled tone, “What’s wrong, did something happen?”

“It’s Jackie…”


End file.
